Elliott Smith Quotes

It is always weird to be in the studio working on Christmas music in June and July, so we decorated the entire studio, we really did. We brought out lights, fake trees and decorated the place to get in the Christmas spirit. You'd leave the studio, and it'd be 100 degrees out in Nashville, but nonetheless, a great experience.

It's a party that's being organized; it's not a protest. The carnival is not like it was a long time ago. Before it was do as you like, take to the streets.

A person can do a lot of reading and research as I have done. I went to Spain and spent a whole summer there with my family, immersing myself in the culture. But all that isn't really necessary to experience the music.

I knew all this Beatles music. I knew the songs phonetically. It was like my whole experience of that music was out of focus, and somebody put the perfect glasses on me, and all of a sudden I could see everything.

I was born at the beginning of rock and roll. I got to experience the entire evolution of popular rock and roll music even before it started.

For me, I can only do that from my own experience with people I've known and things that I've lived and experienced. That's what good pop music is all about, pop music that does reach out to people. It's very personalized and very real, honest and sincere.

I can't write music unless I'm deeply connected to it and that connection almost always comes from some experience that I have had or am having.

It's easy listening to a record, but a live performance is so personal and real.

From the food to the Mardi Gras Indians to the brass bands and the second liners parading through the street, Jazz Fest presents New Orleans in one place.

I like parades.

I didn't think twice about coming to a big club.

Doing a festival in Hong Kong was special, looking out and seeing this massive crowd and the city.

I just really like performing for different crowds and seeing different places.

In Brazil, you buy tickets to go to the stadium to watch the carnival, but in Trinidad, you buy a costume and take part. There are very few things that can rival that experience.

One of the most remarkable shindigs I ever attended was in Warsaw.

After the Dance was my first attempt at nonfiction. I'd never really participated in carnival, and I really wanted to go. It sounded like a wonderfully fun thing to do. And I wanted to write something happy about Haiti, something celebratory. And going to carnival gave me a chance to do that, because it is one of the instances in Haiti when people shed their class separation and come together.

This was an unbelievable experience.

Millions of items in the outward order are present to my senses which never properly enter into my experience. Why? Because they have no interest for me. My experience is what I agree to attend to. Only those items which I notice shape my mind --without selective interest, experience is an utter chaos.

There is little one can say about love. It has to be lived, and it's always in motion.

Some songs, some nights won't do anything for you, but people enjoy them and that's the job. The magic is finding those places to stand in the song and gain perspective.

There are no shortcuts to knowledge, especially knowledge gained from personal experience. Following conventional wisdom and relying on shortcuts can be worse than knowing nothing at all.

I relate to all of my songs and I'm inspired by everything going on around me. Music comes from all different aspects of my life.

Though I may not . . . be able to quote other authors, I shall rely on that which is much greater and more worthy - on experience.

Experience is a truer guide than the words of others.

It's logical that people from bad times will reflect their feelings in their communication. Music is part of the communication. If you lived it, you can do it.