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Song Quotes by Conor Oberst

52 Song quotes by Conor Oberst

All Song quotes Conor Oberst’s page

Conor Oberst says that finishing a song is the best feeling, even when the melody sounds like someone else’s work. He admits that inspiration can’t be forced; it often arrives after a long wait. He also believes music can slip behind enemy lines and change hearts, showing its special power.

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To finish a song is the best feeling in the world.

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I believe that vinyl will outlast CDs.

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The only thing major labels can really offer is money.

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You can do a lot to shape the feeling of a song by the way you record it.

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We've all seen the power music has to spread messages of solidarity and hope.

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When you write a song, the goal is not to convey the details of your life. You should write a memoir or…

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I love story songs. It's just, for me, they're harder to write, and sometimes they sound too intended or something.

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It seems like everything I do musically I tend to lose a few fans and gain a few fans, and it all…

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The best feeling I ever get is when I finish a song, and it exists, and it didn't exist before, and now…

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

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

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I enjoy recording and performing, but it's the songwriting that I love most.

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I think there are some songs that stand the test of time better than others for sure. I think some songs go…

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And your eyes must do some raining if you're ever gonna grow / When crying don't help, you can't compose yourself /…

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To outsiders it probably seems like splitting hairs, but to me, Bright Eyes is a simply the collaboration between myself and Mike…

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When I try to explain to people the big influences in my life, or at least when I first started, the most…

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I want to be enriched by the music I listen to. That's the reason it never really exists in the mainstream. Because…

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It's very strange when people get so focused on what a song means, what actual events inspired a song. That gets people…

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My dad, who plays guitar and piano and was in cover bands, along with my older brother, Matt, taught me guitar and…

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It's dangerous to buy into praise and criticism for what you do when you're trying to present your music to people. I…

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I try not to think about the idea of reaching more and more people, because once you get in that mindset, I…

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All those experiences were a chance to learn more about music. Playing with the Valley band is like such a "live" band.…

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Every time I finish a song... most of the time it's in my own head, like this sounds too much like a…

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It's glorious to be able to go onto the Internet and hear any kind of music anywhere, from anywhere, and get it…

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I've never conceptualized much of what I write about. Maybe, once I'm onto something, I'll conceptualize a finished record. I want the…

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I don't really premeditate what I write my songs about; you know, they just kind of happen, and I can't start writing…

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

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Pronouns really don't matter in a song - 'I' or 'he' or 'she' or even subscribing a lyric to an inanimate object.

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

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I have a terrible memory in general, but one thing I've always been able to remember is my songs.

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I think our music is more about seeing ourselves in each other and trying to find a more humanistic viewpoint for the…

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So much of listening to lyrically driven music is projecting your own feelings and experiences into the music.

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

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If there's a song that stops meaning anything to me, then I'll quit playing it.

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My main thing is just to keep writing. I've been doing some songwriting that's for my own record, I suppose.

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Each Desaparecidos's song has a seed that it came from. We're trying to take that and broaden it out and make it…

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The first music I ever got into was the '80s alternative bands that my brother listened to, like The Cure and The…

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For a song I was bought Now I lie when I talk With a careful eye on the cue card. Onto a…

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If there's a criticism of 'Cassadaga' that I agreed with, it's that we left things in the oven too long, that songs…

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I've been part of running a label since I was a kid, so I understand how it works. But the more and…

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More by Conor Oberst

Every time I finish a song... most of the time it's in my own head, like this sounds too much like a Townes Van…

Because the truth is that gossip is as good as gospel in this town. You can save face but you won't ever save your…

There's nothing that the road cannot heal

I've given up trying to understand what people think about me. It seems like a lot of people don't like the music we make…

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.…

Cause I swear that I'm dying, slowly but its happening.

In a way, to have whatever people talk about as "crossover success," I think it means you start making bad music. I mean, when…

Men with purple hearts carry silver guns and they will kill a man for what his father has done. But what my father did,…

There's a major underlying idea as you grow up that you need to just save your money and get that affordable housing at the…

To finish a song is the best feeling in the world.

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…

I'm ripe for the picking for the Scientologists - one of those creeps. Someone's got to find me. Some little weird cult can just…

When I run into a person or a kid that comes up and gives me the spiel about, 'Hey, I got your record at…

My dad, who plays guitar and piano and was in cover bands, along with my older brother, Matt, taught me guitar and stuff. I…

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…