Top 140 Conor Oberst Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “We might die from medication but we sure killed all the pain.”

— Conor Oberst

2. “I’m happy just because I found out I am really no one.”

— Conor Oberst

3. “If you love something, give it away.”

— Conor Oberst

4. “Cause I swear that I’m dying, slowly but its happening.”

— Conor Oberst

5. “You should never be embarrassed by your trouble with living, because it’s the ones with the sorest throats who have done the most singing.”

— Conor Oberst

6. “One by one I drowned all the people I’d been.”

— Conor Oberst

7. “We must memorize nine numbers and deny we have a soul.”

— Conor Oberst

8. “I always embrace the worst-case scenario.”

— Conor Oberst

9. “There’s nothing that the road cannot heal.”

— Conor Oberst

10. “I came upon a doctor who appeared in quite poor health. I said, ‘There’s nothing that I can do for you that you can’t do for yourself.’ He said, ‘Oh yes you can. Just hold my hand. I think that that would help.’ So I sat with him a while then I asked him how he felt. He said, ‘I think I’m cured.’”

— Conor Oberst

11. “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.”

— Conor Oberst

12. “Cause a costume can be comfortable It can make you feel more beautiful It can even make you look like someone else But it’s still you, so there’s nothing you can do Like a bad habit, the one you couldn’t kick, there it always is And it’s nothing that no doctor’s gonna fix.”

— Conor Oberst

13. “When I was younger, I was somewhat of an idealist. I guess I’m a little bit more of a realist now. I think there’s a lot that can be done to make the world a better place, but it’s more about choosing your battles.”

— Conor Oberst

14. “I really just want to be warm yellow light that pours over everyone I love.”

— Conor Oberst

15. “I think in a lot of ways unconditional love is a myth. My mom’s the only reason I know it’s a real thing.”

— Conor Oberst

16. “I’d rather be working for a paycheck, than waiting to win the lottery. Besides, maybe this time it’s different, I mean, I really think you like me.”

— Conor Oberst

17. “The Bible’s blind, the Torah’s deaf, the Qur’an is mute; if you burned them all together you’d get close to the truth.”

— Conor Oberst

18. “Because the truth is that gossip is as good as gospel in this town. You can save face but you won’t ever save your soul. And that’s a fact.”

— Conor Oberst

19. “There’s a very fine line between one person’s reality and another person’s fantasy.”

— Conor Oberst

20. “I wanna be your happiness. I wanna be your common sense pain.”

— Conor Oberst

21. “In a coma, you don’t dream, you just hope that someone sits with you.”

— Conor Oberst

22. “Love’s an excuse to get hurt and to hurt. Do you like to hurt? I do, I do then hurt me.”

— Conor Oberst

23. “I understand why people get desensitized and roll their eyes when they hear a protest song, or even a politician making some flowery speech. It doesn’t really change anything.”

— Conor Oberst

24. “The world’s become a little too mean.”

— Conor Oberst

25. “Everything that happens is supposed to be And it’s all pre-determined, can’t change your destiny Guess I’ll just keep moving, someday maybe I’ll get to where I’m going.”

— Conor Oberst

26. “My favorite rhymes are sort of half-rhymes where you might just get the vowel sound the same, but it’s not really a true rhyme. That gives you far more flexibility to capture the feeling you’re trying to express. But sometimes it’s best not to have any rhyme.”

— Conor Oberst

27. “My Brother went to college To become a doctor And if he studies hard enough He’ll end up just like papa, who hates his life.”

— Conor Oberst

28. “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.”

— Conor Oberst

29. “When you’re 16 or 17, I think like most people that age, the first time you experience certain things in life, whether it’s heartbreak or death or love, obviously it’s going to seem like a much bigger deal.”

— Conor Oberst

30. “The drunk kids, the catholics They’re all about the same They’re waiting for something Hoping to be saved.”

— Conor Oberst

31. “People resist change; if they like something, then they want you to keep doing it over and over – but I think if you like what a particular band or artist does, then you should want to see what they’re going to do next.”

— Conor Oberst

32. “I think it is more like a ghost that has been following us both. Something vague that we’re not seeing, something more like a feeling.”

— Conor Oberst

33. “Love’s an excuse to get hurt.”

— Conor Oberst

34. “The only thing major labels can really offer is money.”

— Conor Oberst

35. “My head’s a carousel of pictures and The spinning never stops.”

— Conor Oberst

36. “I find that life is easier when it is just a blur With no details to confuse who or what or where I was So when the ending comes the full regret will be obscure.”

— Conor Oberst

37. “There was this book I read and loved, The story of a ship Who sailed around the world and found That nothing else exists Beyond its own two sails And wooden shell And what is held within. All else is sure to pass. We clutch and grasp And debate what’s truly permanent.”

— Conor Oberst

38. “You mean nothing to no one but that’s nobody’s fault.”

— Conor Oberst

39. “Screaming is bad for the voice, but it’s good for the heart.”

— Conor Oberst

40. “When everything is lonely I can be my best friend.”

— Conor Oberst

41. “I know a girl who cries when she practices violin because each note sounds so pure it just cuts into her, and then the melody comes pouring out her eyes. Now, to me, everything else just sounds like a lie.”

— Conor Oberst

42. “I need some meaning I can memorize. The kind I have always seems to slip my mind.”

— Conor Oberst

43. “Art is essentially communication. It doesn’t exist in a vacuum. That’s why people make art, so other people can relate to it.”

— Conor Oberst

44. “Sometimes I worry that I’ve lost the plot My twitching muscles tease my flippant thoughts I never really dreamed of heaven much Until we put him in the ground. There is nothing as lucky, as easy, or free.”

— Conor Oberst

45. “Little soldier, little insect You know war it has no heart It will kill you in the sunshine Or happily in the the dark Where kindness is a card game Or a bent up cigarette In the trenches, in the hard rain With a bullet and a bet.”

— Conor Oberst

46. “Men with purple hearts carry silver guns and they will kill a man for what his father has done. But what my father did, I don’t live it: no, I am not him.”

— Conor Oberst

47. “I’ve cried, and you’d think I’d be better for it, but the sadness just sleeps, and it stays in my spine the rest of my life.”

— Conor Oberst

48. “I started to sink like the moon tends to do if you stare at it too long Then you blink and it’s gone.”

— Conor Oberst

49. “There’s a lot of optimism in changing scenery, in seeing what’s down the road.”

— Conor Oberst

50. “If I loved you, well that’s my fault.”

— Conor Oberst