Conor Oberst

"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."

"It was a small mistake Sometimes that is all it takes."

"But, I was as helpless as a chess piece when I was lifted up by someone's hand And delivered from the corner my enemies had got me in But in all of my salvation I still felt imprisoned inside that holding cell that is myself"

"So I wait for the day when I'll hear the key as it turns in the lock And the guard will say to me, "Oh my patient prisoner you waited for this day and finally, you are free! You are free! You are free!""

"We're all too busy working, entertaining ourselves With forty hours, television and prescription pills Well, I take two a day to help my brain behave It never does, but who's to say? At least my doctor gets paid."

"'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."

"I know you have a heavy heart, I can feel it when we kiss So many men stronger than me Have thrown their backs out trying to lift it But me I'm not a gamble You can count on me to split The love I sell you in the evening by the morning won't exist."

"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."

"If you walk away I'll walk away first tell me which road you will take I don't want to risk our paths crossing someday so you walk that way I'll walk this way"

"I found a liquid cure for my landlocked blues"

"And there's kids playing guns in the streets And one's pointing his tree branch at me So I put my hands up I say "Enough is enough, If you walk away I walk away." And he shot me dead."

"But greed is a bottomless pit And our freedom's a joke we're just taking a piss And the whole world must watch the sad comic display If you're still free start runnin' away 'cause we're comin' for ya!"

"You'll be free child once you have died from the shackles of language and measurable time"

"And I never thought this life was possible,You're the yellow bird that I've been waiting for."

"In polaroids you were dressed in women's clothes Were you made ashamed, why'd you lock them in a drawer? Well, I don't think that I ever loved you more"

"Well let the poets cry themselves to sleep And all their tearful words will turn back into steam"

"The sound of loneliness makes me happier"

"Well, I could have been a famous singer If I had someone else's voice But failure's always sounded better Let's fuck it up, boys, make some noise!"

"The sun came up with no conclusions Flowers sleepin' in their beds The city cemetery's hummin' I'm wide awake, its mornin'"

"i keep drinking the ink from my pen and i'm balancing history books up on my head but it all boils down to one quotable phrase if you love something give it away"

"a good woman will pick you apart a box full of suggestions for your possible heart and you may be offended. and you may be afraid but don't walk away, don't walk away"

"we made love on the living room floor with the noise in the background of a televised war and in that defeaning pleasure i thought i heard someone say if we walk away they'll walk away"

"So don't be fooled, so don't get lied to Love was always cruel And don't act strange, don't be a stranger It happened to me, now it's happening to you But if you'd take that train underwater Then we could talk it through"

"Yeah, I was a postcard, I was a record I was a camera until I went blind"

"I guess the best that I can do now is to pretend that I've done nothing wrong and to dream about a train that's gonna take me back where I belong"

"So I go back and forth forever All my thoughts they come in pairs Oh I will, I won't, I doubt, I don't, I'm not surprised but I never feel quite prepared"

"Now I'm hunched over a typewriter I guess you call that paintin' in a cave And there's a word I can't remember and a feeling I cannot escape"

"I dreamt this ship was sinkin' there was people screaming all around And I awoke to my alarm clock it was a pop song it was playin' loud"

"So I will find my fears and face them or I will cower like a dog I will kick and scream or kneel and plead I'll fight like hell to hide that I've given up"

"I want to be the surgeon who cuts you open Who fixes all of life's mistakes I want to be the house that you were raised in The only place where you feel safe."

"I wanna be a shower in the morning That wakes you up and makes you clean I know I'm just the weather against your window As you sleep through a winter's dream"

"I hear if you make friends with Jesus Christ, you will get right up from that chalk outline. And then you'll get dolled up, and you'll dress in white all to take your place in his chorus line. And then in you'll come with those marching drums in a saintly compromise. No more whiskey slurs, no more blonde-haired girls for your whole eternal life. And you'll do the dance that was choreographed at the very dawn of time. Singing "I told you son, the day would come you would die, you'd die you'd die you'd die you'd die"."

"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"

"You took off your clothes and left on the light, You stood there so brave, you used to be shy, Each feature improved, each movement refined, And eyes like a showroom."

"There is no Hell when you die so don't look so worried"

"so immagine what you want and hold onto that thought cause thats as close as it will ever come and believe you're were you're are keep acting out the part but at the end of the day the trees all get wheeled away and you'll be standing alone in a blank, blank space"

"so believe you're who you are and stay in character but at the end of the play the audience walks away and ill be shivering cold on a well lit stage"

"The drunk kids, the catholics They’re all about the same They’re waiting for something Hoping to be saved"

"And I'm sorry about the phone call and needing you Some decisions you don't make I guess it's just like breathing or not wanting to There are some things you can't fake"

"I'm sorry about the phone call; and waking you. I know that it is late, But thank you for talking, because I needed to. Some things just can't wait."

"So I want to get myself attached to something bolted down, So that these winds of circumstance won't keep blowing me around. From when I land to when I leave there is enough time to sleep and sing. I keep running around, when all I want is to lay motionless."

"Future markets, holy wars Been tried ten thousand times before If you think that god is keeping score, hooray!"

"And, you know, it's kind of like with people and the tarot cards. Just because you get the death card doesn't mean death or dying. It means transformation. It means changing things around and starting something new."

"Your class, your caste, your country, sect, your name or your tribe There's people always dying trying to keep them alive"

"Squatters made a mural of a Mexican girl With fifteen cans of spray paint and a chemical swirl She's standing in the ashes at the end of the world Four winds blowing through her hair"

"The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qur'an's mute If you burned them all together you'd get close to the truth still They're pouring over Sanskrit under ivy league moons While shadows lengthen in the sun"

"I never thought of running My feet just led the way"

"I'm a repeat first time offender Who has rewritten history"

"I tried to pass for nothing But my dreams gave me away"