I was very lucky to see guys who were in their mid-30s who had done everything wrong, who had spent their money the wrong way, who had a couple of flush years and blew it all, and [I] was all about, you know what, first ten years of your career, just sock it all away. Put your fuckin’ money away. What you’re striving for is independence, not success. People think that’s the same thing and it’s not. You want liberty, not freedom. …
My goal was … “Okay, what I have to do now is readjust my standard of living so that I can live on seven thousand dollars a year, so I can only do this.” … Learn how to live on nothing. Get books at the library. Get movies from the library. Just stuff like that. Swap stuff with people. And not be so focused on buying a million CDs or a million videotapes, because I don’t need a lot of stuff right now. What I need to do is to get on stage and not have to owe anyone any fuckin’ money, ‘cause once you start owing shit then you’re fucked: “Well, I’ll just take a job now.” The minute you go, “I’ll just take a job” it fucks you.
… I learned how to make really good fried rice, which if you know how to make it it’s a really cheap dish — so I would buy this huge sack of frozen vegetables and a huge sack of rice, some oil and some eggs, and I could just live on that.
— Patton Oswalt, interviewed on A Special Thing in 2005. That fried rice story has stuck with me for years.
