I'm not one of these guys who is dedicated to playing or performing - that's just one facet of my life.

With every problem comes a gift in hand.

I don't like to use the word 'fans;' I call them 'Dick Dale music lovers.'

I smashed my tailbone and couldn't sit for five years, and I broke my clavicle because I thought I was a great surfer, and of course, I could be a great snowboarder, too. Man, was I wiped out!

I make jokes because humor is the greatest healing factor that there is.

I've been performing since 1955. I'm going to have to keep performing till I die because I'm not going to die in some rocking chair with a big ol' beer belly.

People ask about love. Real love. I was never in love; the people around me didn't love me. They were just along for the ride.

Every time I do an album, I say, 'That's the last one.'

Nothing could capture the sound of Dick Dale - he was too loud.

Dick Dale don't surf no more.

You know what the doctors call me? 'The Cancer Warrior.'

I blew amps like they were made of tissue paper. Once I blew out the sound system at Royal Albert Hall in London.

Drums were my first instrument.

I've never followed a list in my life, and that's probably what has created so much nervous energy in my body.

I know what it's like to wash my clothes in a Chevron station.

The Stratocaster is like the Rolls-Royce. It can never be surpassed.

I make my guitar scream with pain or pleasure or sensuality. It makes people move their feet and shake their bodies. That's what music does.

When I was 18 at the Santa Ana River Jetty is where I put my first board in the water that I ever got from Joe Quigg. I was just riding the whitewater in, and I was just in heaven.

My music is more native than intricate or technical.

Jimi was a good guy 'til he got into drugs. That's the way it is. I just tell it like it is.

I'm a perfectionist. I'm not going to cheat the people.

I wanted to put a sheet in explaining what all the songs are about, but they didn't do it.

I told them if were going to do it were going to do it right, I'm not leaving 'til it's done. My wife, child and I slept in the studio. We cut these raw.

When I start playing I'm just a rollercoaster of sound. I don't know what's coming next, I never do, and I sit and sign and talk to the people afterwards.