Conor Oberst famous quotes

The first music I ever got into was the '80s alternative bands that my brother listened to, like The Cure and The Smiths and R.E.M. and Fugazi. I can remember specifically saying The Cure was my favorite band back in second grade.
-- Conor Oberst

#Brother #Alternatives #Band

Since the songs were written over a five-year period, I think these are little snapshots. Some people call it political or topical, but I think each song is self-contained. I think it fits together as a picture of the last half-decade of time.
-- Conor Oberst

#Song #Thinking #Self

Now I believe that lovers should be draped in flowers and laid entwined together on a bed of clover and left there to sleep, left there to dream of their happiness.
-- Conor Oberst

#Dream #Believe #Flower

I think there's a weird self-affirmation thing that happens in popular music in general. It seems like every song I hear on the radio is like, "Listen to me roar!" or "This is my fight song!"
-- Conor Oberst

#Song #Fighting #Thinking

You can't manufacture inspiration, so a lot of it is still a waiting game for me. There's still a lot of mystery to songwriting. I don't have a method that I can go back to - they either come or they don't.
-- Conor Oberst

#Inspiration #Games #Waiting

[Popular music]is all about traveling at the speed of you and elevating the individual as the highest thing in the world.
-- Conor Oberst

#World #Speed #Individual

I know a girl who cries when she practices violin because each note sounds so pure it just cuts into her, and then the melody comes pouring out her eyes. Now, to me, everything else just sounds like a lie.
-- Conor Oberst

#Girl #Lying #Eye

I think our music is more about seeing ourselves in each other and trying to find a more humanistic viewpoint for the world.
-- Conor Oberst

#Thinking #Trying #Viewpoints

If the world could remain within a frame like a painting on the wall, I think we'd see the beauty then and stand staring in awe.
-- Conor Oberst

#Wall #Fear #Thinking

Each song [Desaparecidos] has a seed that it came from. We're trying to take that and broaden it out and make it resonate with people.
-- Conor Oberst

#Song #People #Trying

I like to feel the burn of the audience's eyes when I'm whispering all my darkest secrets into the microphone.
-- Conor Oberst

#Eye #Secret #Whispering

I try not to think about the idea of reaching more and more people, because once you get in that mindset, I think you lose the point of why you're doing it in the first place. Still, the best feeling I ever get is when I finish a song, and it exists, and it didn't exist before, and now it's there, and it makes me feel a certain way.
-- Conor Oberst

#Song #Thinking #Ideas

Love's an excuse to get hurt.
-- Conor Oberst

#Hurt #Hurt Feelings #Excuse

I've been part of running a label since I was a kid, so I understand how it works. But the more and more I learn about it, the less and less interested I am in it.
-- Conor Oberst

#Running #Kids #Labels

You should never be embarrassed by your trouble with living, because it's the ones with the sorest throats who have done the most singing.
-- Conor Oberst

#Singing #Done #Trouble

I think different musical collaborators bring out different qualities in my songs and I like that.
-- Conor Oberst

#Song #Thinking #Musical

When you look at what people consider success in the music industry, it's just terrible music.
-- Conor Oberst

#People #Looks #Terrible

Music becomes very personal. When you marry a message you want to send out into the world with good music, all of a sudden you have a very potent way of delivering your message.
-- Conor Oberst

#World #Want #Way

We [Desaparecidos] have to make the message and the music and the packaging as appealing as possible - as Taco Bell as possible: mediocre and no one can be offended by it and everyone can sort of enjoy it and we can play it on the radio.
-- Conor Oberst

#Play #Taco Bell #Packaging

Rock and roll seems to have had a mellowing in the business where it got harder to sell individual records and make money doing that.
-- Conor Oberst

#Rocks #Rock And Roll #Records

It's in vogue to have a cause and give money in charity. But to actually speak up and say something like, I'm pissed about this" - that doesn't seem to be very popular unless you're writing a blog or tweeting.
-- Conor Oberst

#Writing #Giving #Charity

Maybe there's a different story when it comes to hip-hop or different genres, but as far as rock music goes, I think there is a sort of fear of saying things people might be apt to criticize. Our band is the opposite of that.
-- Conor Oberst

#Thinking #Rocks #Opposites

They say it's better to bury your sadness in a graveyard or garden that waits for the spring to wake from its sleep and burst into green.
-- Conor Oberst

#Sad #Spring #Sleep

Screaming is bad for the voice, but it's good for the heart.
-- Conor Oberst

#Heart #Voice

Hip-hop music has done a very good job of maintaining the political context, where they stand and not giving a sh-t what people think.
-- Conor Oberst

#Jobs #Thinking #People

My feeling is that I think writers in general tend to be self-conscious and it takes a bit of a leap of faith or just not giving a sh-t to write something you know people are going to criticize.
-- Conor Oberst

#Writing #Thinking #Self

I think that hip-hop is more of an individual effort. That means you're an artist from the streets, they expect you to rap about the streets, because that's what happens there.
-- Conor Oberst

#Rap #Mean #Artist

We're going to sing about things that matter to us. The balancing act is to present these ideas but also make the music exciting and sort of fun enough that even if you're not paying attention to the lyrics, you might still like the songs anyway. That's the idea.
-- Conor Oberst

#Song #Fun #Ideas

We [ Desaparecidos] try to be the opposite of apathetic. There are so many young people in America that are apathetic.
-- Conor Oberst

#Opposites #America #People

Much of appreciating art or music is really the interpretation of the listener. To a certain extent it's projection - it's what people need or lack in themselves that they then put upon these people that they admire.
-- Conor Oberst

#Art #People #Appreciate

Rastafarianism and reggae music have always kind of resonated with me. Those ideas of redemption, liberation and overcoming oppression through music, weed and community. Fighting evil through love and music, I think it's just a really powerful idea.
-- Conor Oberst

#Weed #Powerful #Fighting

I do think that music has a special ability to get behind enemy lines and win hearts and minds.
-- Conor Oberst

#Heart #Winning #Thinking

It's hard to get people to focus on one idea.
-- Conor Oberst

#Ideas #People #Focus

Our band is different in the sense that we all are involved with a lot of different projects. It's hard to say when we'll record again, but we're not calling it quits right away.
-- Conor Oberst

#Different #Band #Calling

I understand why people get desensitized and roll their eyes when they hear a protest song, or even a politician making some flowery speech. It doesn't really change anything.
-- Conor Oberst

#Song #Eye #People

I'm not the most technically savvy person in the world. Like, I'm not good at troubleshooting when stuff happens to my digital music.
-- Conor Oberst

#World #Stuff #Digital

I believe that vinyl will outlast CDs. There's no reason for it, but it stays around because there are still people that want them.
-- Conor Oberst

#Believe #Cds #People

It's always the negative things that seep through into your consciousness. Most of the positive things just roll off real fast. I just try not to pay attention to it, because I've never read anything about my band that's accurate.
-- Conor Oberst

#Real #Trying #Negative

I've given up trying to understand what people think about me.
-- Conor Oberst

#Thinking #People #Trying

I want to be enriched by the music I listen to. That's the reason it never really exists in the mainstream. Because that's not what most people are after.
-- Conor Oberst

#People #Want #Reason

In a way, to have whatever people talk about as "crossover success," I think it means you start making bad music. I mean, when I'm flipping through the channels and see the VMAs or something, I don't really see any music there.
-- Conor Oberst

#Mean #Thinking #People

If there's ever a kid out there that can't afford to buy the music, I still want them to hear it, and hopefully they'll go to the show, or buy a T-shirt from the band. That's the idea.
-- Conor Oberst

#Kids #Ideas #Band

The idea of forever is kind of ridiculous, which is unfortunate because its kind of a nice thing to say, you know. I think it softens the blow of mortality and having to say goodbye to everything you know and everyone you love and all that kind of thing.
-- Conor Oberst

#Goodbye #Nice #Thinking

A boycott is, inherently, a blunt instrument. It is an imperfect weapon, a carpet bomb, when all involved would prefer a surgical strike.
-- Conor Oberst

#Bombs #Weapons #Imperfect

Why are you scared to dream of god when it's salvation that you want?
-- Conor Oberst

#Dream #Want #Scared

I really just want to be warm yellow light that pours over everyone I love.
-- Conor Oberst

#Best Love #I Hate You #Light