Elliott Smith Quotes & Trivia

Quotes

And I'm not trying to write heavy songs.

As long as I'm making up new songs than I kind of just let the little machine do its work without taking it apart.

Because God only knows why people like what they like and don't like something else.

But I was also doing odd jobs around Portland, like spreading gravel and transplanting bamboo trees.

But in a way it's easier to do stuff on your own because you really just have to sort of - if you like it than you're done.

I actually don't think that I'm gonna sell a lot of records.

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.

I didn't have a hard time making it, I had a hard time letting it go.

I didn't know how many people knew who Ferdinand was.

I didn't think I was gonna be playing on the Oscars or anything.

I don't intend to write depressing songs and I'd probably rather write happy ones.

I don't really like New York better than Portland. It's just a different place.

I don't think that Dreamworks would have signed me expecting to really mess around with whatever it is I do.

I hope that Dreamworks can sell enough records that they're happy - so I don't get dropped.

I just wanted to move out of Portland to do something.

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.

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 rode on a float in one of the parades in Mississippi. It's an experience.

I think that record gave me a reputation for being a really dark, depressed person but I think I'm just about as happy as all the other people I know.

I walked out and Jack Nicholson was sitting about six feet away, so I avoided that area and I looked up at the balcony in the back and sang the song.

I want to keep making records as long as I can and that's the beginning and end of my concern about selling 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 watched myself put my paw in the bear trap on that one because there was this clause about leaving members.

I wondered if I would talk about drug use. But I guess, why hide it?

I'm just writing songs about how I feel or about how people I know feel.

If you play acoustic guitar you're the depressed, sensitive guy.

In the event of the band dissolving, any members could be kept to that contract with or without their consent under the same terms.

It touches on drug use. I got caught up in that for almost two years.

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.

It's a lot easier to tell the truth usually.

It's just that a lot of songs that are popular right now, they don't have any meaning.

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.

No, I've never been to mardi gras.

So if somebody writes a song that appears to have some meaning then everybody thinks that it's a really heavy song.

Sometimes people seem to think that my songs are more personal than somebody else's and I don't really think that's true.

The band's filter, but playing live is a lot of fun.

There are lots of things I like about playing in a band, the things I can't do by myself you know.

There's always that argument to make - that you're in better company historically if people don't understand what you're doing.

They don't put any pressure on me to do anything in particular and Dreamworks didn't either so this was a really easy record to make.

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.