Elliott Smith famous quotes

Playing things too safe is the most popular way to fail,
-- Elliott Smith

#Safe #Way #Failing

Theres a bunch of Elvis Costello records that made all the difference between feeling like a total freak and feeling like ... only a freak. A freak among other freaks
-- Elliott Smith

#Differences #Feelings #Records

I didn't have a hard time making it. I had a hard time letting it go.
-- Elliott Smith

#Letting Go #Hard Times #Let It Go

Everything means nothing to me
-- Elliott Smith

#Mean

I truly hope the future will bring me something to feel nostalgic about, because there's really nothing much so far I can remember fondly.
-- Elliott Smith

#Remember #Nostalgic #Feels

I watched myself put my paw in the bear trap on that one because there was this clause about leaving members
-- Elliott Smith

#Leaving #Paws #Bears

I don't really like New York better than Portland. It's just a different place.
-- Elliott Smith

#New York #Portland #Different

I got tired of doing battle with people thinking I was a little weird because I wasn't in a band making happy, stilted music. The only people who really seem weird to me are people who think they're normal. People who think it's possible to be normal just by doing the same things that most people do. Is there a most people? I don't know. Television makes it seem like there is, but I think that might just be television,
-- Elliott Smith

#Tired #Thinking #People

You can't get better at things you never play.
-- Elliott Smith

#Play #Get Better

I liked the idea of a self-contained, endless pursuit of perfection. But I have a problem with perfection. I don't think perfection is very artful. But there's something I liked about the image of a skater going in this endless twisted circle that doesn't have any real endpoint. So the object is not to stop or arrive anywhere; it's just to make this thing as beautiful as they can.
-- Elliott Smith

#Beautiful #Real #Thinking

There's always that argument to make - that you're in better company historically if people don't understand what you're doing.
-- Elliott Smith

#Music #People #Argument

It was kind of ridiculous to carry it up to a certain point and then drop the ball or the bomb, like quitting the band right after we had signed to Virgin.
-- Elliott Smith

#Balls #Band #Bombs

It's just that a lot of songs that are popular right now, they don't have any meaning
-- Elliott Smith

#Song

I mean people just have a way of - y'know they'll review your record in two sentences and put you in this little stupid box that you don't want to be in
-- Elliott Smith

#Stupid #Mean #Two

Music is worth doing just because. It doesn’t have to be justified by some political point of view, and it’s kind of insulting to the music to make it a tool for something else.
-- Elliott Smith

#Views #Political #Insulting

Static in my head, the reflected sound of everything, tried to go to where it led, but it didn't lead to anything.
-- Elliott Smith

#Sound #Static

My girlfriend at the time convinced me to send these songs to Cavity Search. When they wanted to put out my record I was totally shocked.
-- Elliott Smith

#Song #Girlfriend #Records

If I seem to be reckless with myself,It's the fault of no one.All things have a placeUnder the moon as well as the sun.
-- Elliott Smith

#Moon #Sun #Faults

There are lots of things I like about playing in a band, the things I cant do by myself you know.
-- Elliott Smith

#Band

I didnt know how many people knew who Ferdinand was.
-- Elliott Smith

#People

I don't really think of time off as writing blocks. I think that's a western notion of demonizing inactivity. When your imagination decides it needs to take a nap. maybe that's what it needs to do.
-- Elliott Smith

#Block #Writing #Thinking

I was trying to do the same thing that I always do which is make an interesting record
-- Elliott Smith

#Interesting #Trying #Records

Haven't laughed this hard in a long time. I better stop now before I start crying. Go off to sleep in the sunshine...I don't want to see the day when its dying.
-- Elliott Smith

#Sleep #Sunshine #Long

I think the music business will eventually crush me, but I [smiles]... I'm ready.
-- Elliott Smith

#Crush #Thinking #I Smile

I walked out and Jack Nicholson was sitting about six feet away, so I avoided that area and I looked up at the balcony in the back and sang the song.
-- Elliott Smith

#Song #Feet #Six

Everybody gets a tag. If you listen to a Velvet Underground record, you don't think, 'Godfathers of Punk.' You just think, 'This sounds great.' The tags are there in order to help try to sell something by giving it a name that's going to stick in somebody's memory. But it doesn't describe it. So 'depressing' isn't a word I would use to describe my music. But there is some sadness in it -- there has to be, so that the happiness in it will matter.
-- Elliott Smith

#Depressing #Memories #Sadness

I think the suggestion that all my songs are personal is insulting because that assumes that I have a bunch of issues that I feel the need to unload on strangers. That is not the case. It also assumes that I just talk about myself the whole time which, again, is not true.
-- Elliott Smith

#Song #Thinking #Issues

If you play acoustic guitar you're the depressed, sensitive guy.
-- Elliott Smith

#Depressing #Guitar #Play

I rode on a float in one of the parades in Mississippi. It's an experience.
-- Elliott Smith

#Parades #Mississippi

I wondered if I would talk about drug use. But I guess, why hide it?
-- Elliott Smith

#Drug #Use

I can't think of anything off the top of my head that seems more important than something designed to raise money to keep something going that keeps IV drug users from dying.
-- Elliott Smith

#Thinking #Drug #Important

Well, I try not to think about the general public since I have no idea what the general public is and I don't think anybody does.
-- Elliott Smith

#Thinking #Ideas #Trying

I didn't think I was gonna be playing on the Oscars or anything.
-- Elliott Smith

#Thinking #Oscars

I actually don't think that I'm gonna sell a lot of records.
-- Elliott Smith

#Thinking #Records

I just wanted to move out of Portland to do something.
-- Elliott Smith

#Moving #Portland #Wanted

But I was also doing odd jobs around Portland, like spreading gravel and transplanting bamboo trees.
-- Elliott Smith

#Jobs #Tree #Bamboo

They say that God makes problems just to see what you can stand, before you do as the devil pleases.
-- Elliott Smith

#Devil #Problem #Please

People think they know all these things about other people, and if you ask them why they think they know that, it'd be hard for them to be convincing.
-- Elliott Smith

#Thinking #People #Convincing

He made his life a lie so he might never have to know anyone.
-- Elliott Smith

#Lying #Might #Chaos

The band's filter, but playing live is a lot of fun.
-- Elliott Smith

#Fun #Filters #Band

Nothing's gonna drag me down to a death that's not worth cheating.
-- Elliott Smith

#Cheating #Chaos #Drag

Certain songs just feel a way that's hard to put into words and it's not happy and it's also not really sad but I couldn't say what it is
-- Elliott Smith

#Song #Way #Not Happy

It's a lot easier to tell the truth usually.
-- Elliott Smith

#Telling The Truth #Easier

I'm just writing songs about how I feel or about how people I know feel.
-- Elliott Smith

#Song #Writing #People

A lot of people are kind of depressed. I'm happy some of the time, and some of the time I'm not.
-- Elliott Smith

#People #Kind

Burning every bridge that I cross to find some beautiful place to get lost.
-- Elliott Smith

#Beautiful #Bridges #Burning

I went walking around the city some more, people watching with a cold, blank stare. And I saw your face in everyone, I swear.
-- Elliott Smith

#Cities #People #Faces

I see you're leaving me and taking up with the enemy, the cold comfort of the in-between, a little less than a human being.
-- Elliott Smith

#Leaving #Enemy #Comfort

All your secret wishes could right now be coming true.
-- Elliott Smith

#Secret #Wish

The devil's script sells you the heart of a blackbird.
-- Elliott Smith

#Heart #Devil #Scripts

Fights problems with bigger problems.
-- Elliott Smith

#Fighting #Chaos #Problem

It touches on drug use. I got caught up in that for almost two years.
-- Elliott Smith

#Years #Two #Drug