A biography for Conor Obersthasn’t been written yet.
“It seems like everything I do musically I tend to lose a few fans and gain a few fans, and it all kind of evens out.”
“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.”
“When everything is lonely I can be my best friend.”
“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.”
“Art is basically communication, and I think everyone who's a music lover has had that experience where a record or a recording has kept you company when no one else is around. And I think that is what I'm hoping that people get out of my music.”
“There's a very fine line between one person's reality and another person's fantasy.”
“I would prefer to be a little nervous, because when you stop being nervous is kind of when you stop caring.”
“Pronouns really don't matter in a song - 'I' or 'he' or 'she' or even subscribing a lyric to an inanimate object.”
“When I would first come to New York on tour, I hated the place.”
“A boycott is, inherently, a blunt instrument. It is an imperfect weapon, a carpet bomb, when all involved would prefer a surgical strike.”
“I didn't used to think about politics much, or social issues. I was a teenager, writing about girls.”
“I have many friends who are both Mexican and Mexican-American and others who, I guess you would say, are somewhere in between. The ironic thing is that all three of those categories often exist inside of the same family.”
“I went right from wunderkind to washed up. Old. Been around too long. That's just the way I feel. That's my internal dialogue.”
“I like ideas, but I don't like being preached to.”
“To finish a song is the best feeling in the world.”
“One of my favorite modern American authors is Denis Johnson. I'm deeply inspired by all of his work - I rip him off constantly.”
“We must memorize nine numbers and deny we have a soul.”
“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.”
“On good days, I can see the inherent goodness in people, and that human beings have a high capacity to learn and adapt. But things like the environment, nuclear weapons and ideas like peak oil - if you think about them too much, they can really freak you out.”
“If the world could remain within a frame like a painting on the wall, I think we'd see the beauty then and stand staring in awe.”