Conor Oberst
I keep my eyes closed a lot when I'm singing because sometimes it's distracting to see people.
One of my best friends, Mike, had a kid. Just seeing him go through it all was inspiring. It would be so nice to care about someone more than yourself. And Mike is a total delinquent, so if he can do it, I figure I can, too.
I read the newspaper online. Mostly 'The New York Times.' I'll still buy papers if I'm getting on an airplane or the tour bus, though. I like physical things.
I try to make all my songs good. I don't ever write one to finish one. A lot of protest songs end up that way, driven by some kind of emotional response.
When I started writing songs, I was doing it for myself and a small circle of friends. And gradually, over the years, an audience became involved.
My main thing is just to keep writing. I've been doing some songwriting that's for my own record, I suppose.
I think that, with anything creative, you should have the freedom to experiment, and that experimentation means not feeling totally responsible for how other people perceive it.
My family is Catholic. I went to a Catholic school, that kind of thing, so that was my childhood for sure.
The idea of forever is kind of ridiculous, which is unfortunate because it's 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.
I have a lot of friends that take that position of extreme cynicism, and I just can't let myself go to that place. It's just too easy, and it's just too defeatist.
I don't really premeditate what I write my songs about; you know, they just kind of happen, and I can't start writing songs to please a certain group of people or propagate a certain message all the time. That's just not how my songwriting works - it just sort of comes out, and the songs are what they are.
I think there are some songs that stand the test of time better than others for sure. I think some songs go out of favour; I'll get sick of a song for a while, and I won't play it; then it'll make a comeback.
If there's a criticism of 'Cassadaga' that I agreed with, it's that we left things in the oven too long, that songs were overstuffed, with too many ideas competing for space.
The fact that anytime you think you really know something, you're going to find out you're wrong - that is the rule. The moments where you think you have something figured out, those are the exceptions.
I never camped as a kid, but I really got into camping and sleeping outdoors. I've also done some amazing river floats in New Mexico and Idaho. It's peaceful and awesome.
I'm proud that with 'Bright Eyes' we've always experimented and tried to make a different record every time out.
So much of listening to lyrically driven music is projecting your own feelings and experiences into the music.
I didn't used to think about politics much, or social issues. I was a teenager, writing about girls.
I'm very interested in writing - it just takes so much discipline, whether it's short stories or novels.
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.Collection: Singing
I'm happy just because I found out I am really no oneCollection: Found
Everything must belong somewhere. I know that now, that's why I'm staying here.Collection: Staying
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.Collection: Song
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.Collection: People
I don't see any harm in letting whatever comes out come out of you, even if it's sort of weird, or dark, or painful, or too embarrassing, or whatever. I feel like you might as well get it down for yourself. It can't do anything but help you get to where you want to be by recognizing the thoughts that you're having.Collection: Dark
So when your new eyes meet mine they won't see no lies, just love.Collection: Lying
I would say I'm a humanist. I like that. I mean, I don't claim to know anything, but I'm curious about it all. I'm always fascinated when people really fervently believe, because I have such a hard time believing anything.Collection: Believe
All those experiences were a chance to learn more about music. Playing with the Valley band is like such a "live" band. I mean, really, in many ways Bright Eyes is really a studio project. We form bands to tour, but it really is - you know, we take the songs and we figure out how to decorate them and it's all in the studio, we build the songs that way. Whereas Mystic Valley Band was the exact opposite, where everybody knows what they are gonna be playing on the song and there's sort of a general stylistic approach, and then it's just plug in and play.Collection: Song
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 songs to tie together and make sense together. I'm not like, "Oh, I want to explore this idea." That's just not how the creative process works for me. It's more like something strikes me, or finds me, and then I wrestle with it after that. I don't sit back in my armchair, like, "What kind of philosophy can I explore today?"Collection: Song
I drink to stay warm, and to kill selected memoriesCollection: Depression
i keep drinking the ink from my pen and i'm balancing history books up on my head but it all boils down to one quotable phrase if you love something give it awayCollection: Drinking
The drunk kids, the catholics They're all about the same They're waiting for something Hoping to be savedCollection: Kids
Sometimes I worry that I've lost the plot My twitching muscles tease my flippant thoughts I never really dreamed of heaven much Until we put him in the ground. There is nothing as lucky, as easy, or freeCollection: Worry
we made love on the living room floor with the noise in the background of a televised war and in that defeaning pleasure i thought i heard someone say if we walk away they'll walk awayCollection: War
I'd rather be working for a paycheck, than waiting to win the lottery. Besides, maybe this time it's different, I mean, I really think you like me.Collection: Mean
If I loved you, well that's my faultCollection: Faults
I think it is more like a ghost that has been following us both. Something vague that we're not seeing, something more like a feeling.Collection: Thinking
I think our music is more about seeing ourselves in each other and trying to find a more humanistic viewpoint for the world.Collection: Thinking
I came upon a doctor who appeared in quite poor health. I said, 'There's nothing that I can do for you that you can't do for yourself.' He said, 'Oh yes you can. Just hold my hand. I think that that would help.' So I sat with him a while then I asked him how he felt. He said, 'I think I'm cured.'Collection: Kindness
We might die from medication but we sure killed all the painCollection: Pain
And me I'm in my bedroom drawing in my notebook Because my hand thinks I'm an artist But my heart knows I'm a poet It's just words they mean so little to me.Collection: Notebook
And your eyes must do some raining if you're ever gonna grow / When crying don't help, you can't compose yourself / It's best to compose a poem, an honest verse of longing / Or a simple song of hope.Collection: Song
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.Collection: Stuff Happens
They say they don't know when but a day is gonna come. When there won't be a moon and there won't be a sun. It will just go black. It will just go back to the way it was before.Collection: Depression
The sound of loneliness makes me happier.Collection: Loneliness
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.Collection: Jobs
I wanna be your happiness. I wanna be your common sense pain.Collection: Pain
My Brother went to college To become a doctor And if he studies hard enough He'll end up just like papa, who hates his life.Collection: Brother
It's exploding bags, aerosol cans Southbound buses, Peter Pan They left it up to us again I thought you knew the drill It's kill or be killed.Collection: Bags