Conor Oberst Quotes

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

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.

We, the Desaparecidos, are perfectly prepared for people to hate what we're saying or not like what we're saying.

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

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.

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!"

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Desaparecidos try to be the opposite of apathetic. There are so many young people in America that are apathetic.

I used to work at a school as a teacher's assistant, and my mom is a principal at an elementary school. I don't know, I think that's a pretty good life, teaching kids.

I've always been slightly preoccupied with death or whatever those kind of silly big questions people will tell you to not spend your time worrying about.

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.