Will Oldham's Quotes

I think that America in general is piratical. Every time we accept a paycheck for doing almost nothing, allowing us to live above the poverty line, we're engaging in piracy.

I write a song to be recorded. And to some extent to be performed, but definitely more to be recorded than performed, because the recording will last longer than a performance.

I'd like my records to reach as many people as possible, but I'm also thinking in terms of how I can keep from getting jaded or unhappy with the process.

Writing songs is a profession; so it's not an attempt to take things from my interactions with other people and for some reason give them to a total stranger to listen to. I find it offensive to hear other people do that.

As it turns out, as an adult I can have a very unpleasant, fierce and unforgiving temper at times. But I don't think I had that when I was a kid.

It is more rewarding to be complicit with scarcity than excess.

I need to go someplace faraway that doesn't have telephones and doesn't have a record player and doesn't have movie theaters and people walking down the street in order to not do anything.

Cities are made for enemies to destroy.

I don't like the idea of being surrounded by hidden things; people you can't see in buildings and cars.

I don't think that word - the word pirate - has any real meaning. Or it's something that's had meaning imposed on it.

I figure it's okay to make certain rules, whether or not people despise you for it at the time.

I like rural areas.

I make the songs and part of making them is singing them. But what you hear is not me. It's the song. It's through me.

I really hate press.

I think everybody works from a defensive position, for the most part, in the film industry.

I think that what trips up a lot of great musicians is that they become involved with too many things that aren't where their strengths lie.

It's nice to be able to backtrack and not be embarrassed by the music you used to listen to.

It's O.K. to accept good fortune.

People are looking for fame or a focus, and I can't provide that.

Sometimes we need to tell ourselves that we're not going to do certain things, just in order to stay sane.

There's very little admirable about being a pirate. There's very little functional about a pirate. There's very little real about a pirate.

Too much emphasis is put on American roots music when people try and place me. You know, I grew up listening to punk.

What is normally called religion is what I would tend to call music - participating in music, listening to music, making records and singing.