"Places I've lived since then had to have some kind of uniqueness and character about them. And logically Key West, and then Down Island. So, all of that stuff sort of had it's roots in New Orleans and went crazy"
About this Quote
Buffett is sketching a personal origin myth, but he does it the way his songs do: with a shrug that smuggles in a whole worldview. The line about needing “uniqueness and character” isn’t just a real-estate preference; it’s a value system. He’s telling you he couldn’t live anywhere that felt anonymous, managerial, or flattened by the same strip-mall logic. What he’s chasing is atmosphere - places that license a person to be a little weirder, a little freer, and crucially, a little less accountable to the mainland’s definitions of success.
The “logically” is the sly tell. Key West and “Down Island” aren’t logical in a spreadsheet sense; they’re logical as lifestyle narrative, as brand of escape. Buffett frames these moves as inevitable, like a man following a current. That smooths over the harder truth that escape is a choice, often a privilege, and sometimes a performance. He makes drift sound principled.
New Orleans is the hinge. Culturally, it’s a city where music is civic infrastructure and pleasure is practiced like ritual - but also where excess, improvisation, and survival sit side by side. Saying it “had its roots in New Orleans and went crazy” nods to how a local sensibility can metastasize into a full-blown persona: the island troubadour, the barefoot philosopher, the patron saint of happy hour. It’s not just nostalgia; it’s Buffett explaining how a place became a template for a life, and then a business built on the feeling of getting away with it.
The “logically” is the sly tell. Key West and “Down Island” aren’t logical in a spreadsheet sense; they’re logical as lifestyle narrative, as brand of escape. Buffett frames these moves as inevitable, like a man following a current. That smooths over the harder truth that escape is a choice, often a privilege, and sometimes a performance. He makes drift sound principled.
New Orleans is the hinge. Culturally, it’s a city where music is civic infrastructure and pleasure is practiced like ritual - but also where excess, improvisation, and survival sit side by side. Saying it “had its roots in New Orleans and went crazy” nods to how a local sensibility can metastasize into a full-blown persona: the island troubadour, the barefoot philosopher, the patron saint of happy hour. It’s not just nostalgia; it’s Buffett explaining how a place became a template for a life, and then a business built on the feeling of getting away with it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Travel |
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