My philosophy is the thicker the wood the thicker the sound, the bigger the string the bigger the sound. My smallest string is a 14 gauge.

I used to surf up in Ventura County at Silver Strand; plus, I’ve played up there many times.

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

I’ll just tell you the way it is. You ask me what time it is and I’m gonna tell you how to build a clock.

You can’t eat fish. It’s 6,000 parts DDT per million all over the world, not counting radiation.

Little Richard, he’d say, ‘Oh Dick Dale! You have luscious lips!’

I’d rather be a Jack-of-all-trades than master of one. If I became an icon, where my whole life was music, I would probably have become a vegetable. I wouldn’t be able to have all these...

I don’t live with the ‘right’ people. I don’t want to. I don’t want to live with the rich in Beverly Hills or walk the streets of Hollywood. I want to go to K-mart and...

I don’t claim to be a musician, I didn’t go to Julliard.

The Musicians Hall of Fame is chosen by thousands of your peers. So it’s the real thing.

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

I’m dedicated to touring the rest of my life.

I always wanted a guitar. I always wanted to be a cowboy singer because I also listened to Hank Williams, and he would always sing these neat romantic songs.

I grew a love for helpless, defenseless things. People would give me lions and jaguars. I had cheetahs, monkeys.

As I’d go out learning to surf, I’d feel the power of waves coming over my body. It’s like you’re with God.

Music is nothing but a door opener to meet families and their children and the elderly.

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.

I live like in the days of Daniel Boone, hauling water by hand. I used to have two Rolls-Royces. Now I got one. It’s got four flat tires; the trunk is open, and a rat...

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’m constantly being influenced by the soul that’s directly in front of me.

I’m going to make people happy. I’m going to make them forget about their cancer. I’m going to make them forget about their diabetes.

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.

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

Dick Dale don’t surf no more.

My aunt played the piano and I used to sit and listen to it.

I’ve never taken a lesson in my life, and I can play every instrument there is. I play by ear, but I can fool anybody into thinking I went to some conservatory of music.

I used to be a mean maniac. Someone once threw a firecracker at a show and I jumped off the side of the stage and whacked ’em on the side of the head.

I like to say, ‘I hit every type of music in a show, and I play the people, not the instruments.’

The ultimate guitar players can play every scale in the book.

I actually first picked up an ukulele before I picked up a guitar.

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

You shouldn’t even be writing this story if you haven’t heard me play live. You can’t write with the passion you receive until you see a Dick Dale concert.

I enjoy living like a hermit, but I cannot live like a hermit.

Drums were my first instrument.

My father never put me on his lap and said he loved me.

What we perceive things to be when they come out of our mouth is not what the listener perceives it to be. They think it differently. They’re not your blood. They’re not your mind. You...

I was reading a magazine when I was a little kid, probably about twelve years old, and an ad said that if you sell so many jars of Noxzema skin cream, we’ll sell you a...

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

They’re putting cement dust into cattle feed to make the cows heavier; the FDA knows all about it.

Every song is like a painting.

I almost had to have my leg amputated because of an infection.

I’ve been called ‘the father of loud.’

My son now is 22 months old, he’s been playing since he was 12 months old and he gets standing ovations on the drums. He’s been with us since he was 10 weeks old, he’s...

I met Leo Fender, who is the guru of all amplifiers, and he gave me a Stratocaster. He became a second father to me.

Earthlings are confused, insecure. And some Earthlings have no heritage: that’s what leads them to kill each other and rob 7-11 stores.

My mind never left 20, because once it does, that’s when you start to die.

When I first played the guitar without plugging it into an amplifier, the people at Fender were blown away. They couldn’t believe the sound. I said, ‘See, gentlemen, the world is no longer flat.’

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.

What I play now isn’t surf music. It’s too powerful. I used to go through paper bags; now I go through brick walls. I play hard.