Conor O'Brien famous quotes

I think for me, the only depressing music is music that doesn't give credence to those kinds of feelings, music that's just written for money or commercial reasons. Sad music can be the most uplifting thing in the world.
-- Conor O'Brien

#Uplifting #Depressing #Thinking

It took a little time to get where I wanted. It took a little time to get free. It took a little time to be honest. It took a little time to be me.
-- Conor O'Brien

#Littles #Honest #Wanted

I just think I'm a narcissist, really! I guess when I write albums, they take a huge amount of time out of my life and I'm aware of not using the same processes as I did with the last one, or else I'd get really bored and wouldn't feel inspired.
-- Conor O'Brien

#Writing #Thinking #Bored

I think the trick is that you have to change how you take stuff in. Maybe the early beginnings of a song come out in a subconscious way, but then you might have to crack it to a certain degree, where you might use parts of your brain that you don't normally use.
-- Conor O'Brien

#Song #Thinking #Might Use

There's no way anyone's going to understand my own personal experiences, where the songs came from, because they're mine. But I was very conscious of leaving loads of space in the songs so that people could interpret them with their own memories, feelings, and emotions. I love the process of taking stuff away so that people could finish the songs themselves. I was hoping it'd end up being as universal as possible, even though it comes from the most personal place.
-- Conor O'Brien

#Song #Memories #Space

If you're writing a song about a relationship ending, what you're really doing is honoring how much that person meant to you.
-- Conor O'Brien

#Song #Writing #Relationships Ending

When I am recording on my own, it's like an oil painting: I can put that on top of that and build up layers. But with the band, it turned out more watercolor: you're leaving white bits of paper exposed, so that nothing is too overworked.
-- Conor O'Brien

#White #Oil Painting #Leaving

America's a funny place. Every time I've come over it just feels absolutely gigantic and massive. I've always had good shows there, but I just go and come back, feeling like another singer/songwriter in a sea of thousands of singer/songwriters. I don't really know what "breaking it in America" is or means. I just focus on touring day-by-day, and show-by-show, and see where it goes.
-- Conor O'Brien

#Mean #America #Sea

The essence of trade unionism is social uplift. The labor movement has been the haven for the dispossessed, the despised, the neglected, the downtrodden, the poor.

Enlightenment does not ask you to be perfect; it simply asks you to find perfection right where you stand.

An inspired and inspiring guide to living with optimism in a world that is increasingly jaded and pessimistic. Uplifting, rousing, and challenging us to dream the world into being in a positive and creative manner.

The waltz can be sad and at the same time uplifting. You have to see life from both sides, and the waltz encapsulates that. If you're in my audience you give yourself to me and the waltz will grab you.

Here in the big city people spend their time thinking about work and about money; they don't give some value to friendships and it can be depressing.

This is not to say that the Scots are not fine people, but they were all sort of... well, my grandfather was a minister and sort of Protestant, and this was rather depressing to me.

Music critics think of lyrics first and don't consider melody but so many songs are lyrically depressing but musically great, and that's why they become classics.

My parents signed me up for classical guitar lessons, which made for two years of the most depressing Wednesday evenings.

Goodbye, my almost lover. Goodbye, my hopeless dream. I'm trying not to think about you, can't you just let me be? So long, my luckless romance, my back is turned on you. Should've known you'd bring me heartache. Almost lovers always do.

My goal has been to encourage jointness, to push people to think of affiliations rather than to operate as solo entrepreneurs.