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" Although Omaha is my birthplace and the place I grew up, I don't see myself spending extended amounts of time there. I feel almost more comfortable and more at peace in New York. "

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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 important ones were my friends who were also writing songs and were typically four or five years older than me. "

Conor Oberst

Writing

Try

" 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. "

" It's human nature to wonder. "

" I like the Alice in Wonderland sculpture in Central Park. I love how it's been rained on forever and looks worn down by time. "

" There's all body types, but there's just one size. "

" Screaming is bad for the voice, but it's good for the heart. "

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

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

" 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. "

" When I run into a person or a kid that comes up and gives me the spiel about, 'Hey, I got your record at this time in my life, and it really helped me,' that stuff totally still rings true. If you're standing there talking to someone, it's really easy to tell if they're being authentic or not. And that's great. "

" When you write a song, the goal is not to convey the details of your life. You should write a memoir or something if that's what you're going to do. "

" On every Bright Eyes record, there's some kind of sound collage that begins it. Some of them have dialogue, some don't. I like it because it can kind of slow down the attention span a bit. It's a way to draw you in to the rest of the record. "

" 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 and don't know me, or something. "

" To me, a political song is also a personal song. Most political activism has been driven by empathy for other people and the desire for a world that's less divisive. Even if songs aren't overtly political, they can make a listener more empathetic. "

" With science and reason throughout history, what people believed turned out to be false. So I like to keep an open mind to all perspectives and learn and become more fully realised as a person. I just feel we're never going to know what the full picture is. "

" If you think about the concept of reincarnation, it's essentially uploading yourself and your spirit into a new form, a new hard drive as it were. "

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

" I think we should be pushing for amnesty and a path to citizenship for every undocumented person residing in the United States who has not committed a violent crime, with a special emphasis on keeping families together. "

" 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. "

" The one recurring theme in my writing, and in my life in general, is confusion. 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 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. "

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

" I really believe in the way the energy can consolidate in certain geographical spots. You can find it in a lot of different places, beautiful natural spots, or if you look at Islam or Judaism or Christianity, these ideas of holy places. "

" I'll write about myself, or people I know, or archetypal characters, but the goal is to get at some truth, not to necessarily convey my own experience as an individual to the world. "

" I kind of go in waves with reading. Sometimes I read all the time, and sometimes I can't get settled enough to focus. "

" 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. "

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

" It's glorious to be able to go onto the Internet and hear any kind of music anywhere, from anywhere, and get it instantly. But there's also something glorious about having a record with a sleeve and looking at the artwork, putting it on the turntable and playing it, there's still something romantic to me about that. "

Conor Oberst

Looking

Music

" I think there's so much about Rasta culture that's interesting. Just the idea of preaching one-ness, that we're all in this together. "

" 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. "