Quotes from Oliver

If there is one sin—or rather one waste—it is not doing what you have the inclination or gift for.

I like working alone. I feel freer, less constrained. I know what I have to do and I try to do it. There are no superficial hangups.

If there is one sin—or rather one waste—it is not doing what you have the inclination or gift for.

I don't think any responsible performer would go on stage high. If he convinced himself he is better that way, he is deluding himself.

I think of myself first as a singer, meaning an interpreter. Then I think of myself as a writer. It is an outlet I have to have. I get very hard to live with without something happening to write about.

I don't try to analyze my style now or I might lose it. Right now it's automatic and I don't want to become too conscious of it.

I wouldn't say I'm happy, but I look at things in a soft way. I try to convey more personal interaction, rather than huge injustices.

I gladly sacrifice pear-shaped tones in favor of down-to-earth emotion.

My job is to entertain people by playing my music well. You shouldn't really be upset because people like you, should you?

A song should stand on its own and on what a singer does with it. It shouldn't need a lot of extra help to be good.

I try to make the music give people a chance to become engrossed with what they hear enough to possibly experience things they've probably experienced on their own but don't normally let themselves go so as to feel them fully.

I like performing because it's direct contact with live people. I write a good deal of the time but that's introspective creation rather than interaction.

When I write I like to give equal justice to lyrics, too. I want the song to have meaning for me so I can make it have meaning for the audience.

I think some entertainers have been very irresponsible in their part in making drug use a fad among young people. They say, look at so-and-so, he's a pot head and look what it has done for him. The truth is, he was talented to start with. I mean, if you have vacuity and expand it, you still have vacuity.