Elliott Smith
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.Collection: Money
It's a lot easier to tell the truth usually.
I didn't have a hard time making it, I had a hard time letting it go.
If you play acoustic guitar you're the depressed, sensitive guy.
I don't think that Dreamworks would have signed me expecting to really mess around with whatever it is I do.
Because God only knows why people like what they like and don't like something else.
There's always that argument to make - that you're in better company historically if people don't understand what you're doing.
It's just that a lot of songs that are popular right now, they don't have any meaning.
I actually don't think that I'm gonna sell a lot of records.
I was coming off of a lot of psyche meds and other things.
I was trying to do the same thing that I always do which is make an interesting record.
I like home recordings and studio recordings just as much as each other - I don't think one is better - but for this record I wanted to see what I could do in a real studio with real producers.
It touches on drug use. I got caught up in that for almost two years.
I just wanted to move out of Portland to do something.
And I'm not trying to write heavy songs.
I wondered if I would talk about drug use. But I guess, why hide it?
But I was also doing odd jobs around Portland, like spreading gravel and transplanting bamboo trees.
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.
I watched myself put my paw in the bear trap on that one because there was this clause about leaving members.
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.
I didn't think I was gonna be playing on the Oscars or anything.
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.
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.
I'm just writing songs about how I feel or about how people I know feel.
I don't really like New York better than Portland. It's just a different place.
I didn't know how many people knew who Ferdinand was.
There are lots of things I like about playing in a band, the things I can't do by myself you know.
The band's filter, but playing live is a lot of fun.
I rode on a float in one of the parades in Mississippi. It's an experience.
Playing things too safe is the most popular way to fail.Collection: Fear
Burning every bridge that I cross to find some beautiful place to get lost.Collection: Beautiful
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.Collection: Beautiful
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.Collection: Remember
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.Collection: Tired
I didn't have a hard time making it. I had a hard time letting it go.Collection: Letting Go
Somewhere where people aren't so mad would be nice, but I don't know if there is anywhere like that.Collection: Nice
Everything means nothing to meCollection: Mean
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.Collection: Views
You can't get better at things you never play.Collection: Play
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 freaksCollection: Differences
A lot of people are kind of depressed. I'm happy some of the time, and some of the time I'm not.Collection: People
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.Collection: Depressing
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.Collection: Sleep
Static in my head, the reflected sound of everything, tried to go to where it led, but it didn't lead to anything.Collection: Sound
All your secret wishes could right now be coming true.Collection: Secret
The devil's script sells you the heart of a blackbird.Collection: Heart
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.Collection: Block
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 isCollection: Song
You can take a picture of New York and one person looking at it will think it looks really depressing, frightening; and someone else will look at it and think of all the fun things you can do in New York. I think songs are kinda like that.Collection: Song
He made his life a lie so he might never have to know anyone.Collection: Lying