Quotes from Will Oldham

I like rural areas.

I don't like going to cities. I don't mind maybe being in a city sometimes for a few hours, but I pretty much don't like cities. I don't even like passing through them.

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.

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

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.

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

Sometimes it will be for more money than I've ever been offered before. I mean, am I an idiot again for not doing that?

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

I have more respect for somebody who points at his ideal - in this case, the ideal of the pirate - and then becomes something that's more radical, more exciting, more subversive than a pirate could ever be.

I do not want a personal relationship with my fans. Or to do anything that encourages them to think they have one with me. They can have a personal relationship with my songs. That's fine, but they don't know me.

I don't usually read reviews. I usually read the interviews, just because I figure it's a good way to try to do them better if I ever have to do them again.

Whenever I see something that looks like it could be good - whether it's on vinyl, CD or cassette - if it's not too expensive, I'll take a chance.

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

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

I really hate press.

Cities are made for enemies to destroy.

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

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

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

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

I think most great actors have their own life trajectory, the character motion doesn't have anything to do with their life motion.

I think records and music are more appropriate and more respectful of the human soul than the churches are. And more respectful of the needs of humans to communicate with the aspects of themselves that are neglected by language.

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

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.