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Inbetween visits to the clinic and time spent at a series of clandestine training camps, Oliver likes to soak up the delights of our decadent culture like a big sponge from Oxford. Here are some of the things which have aroused his mind and, more worryingly, his body.
BOOKS, FILMS ETC.
POLITICS
HUMOUR
QUOTATIONS
"If I have made one more person miserable, I have done my job." - Woody Allen "I don't hate America, I regret it." - Sigmund Freud "Everyone will end up prone to depression after a certain age. There's not really anything you can do about it because while the demands people make of their lives are going to go on growing, their ability to achieve them won't." - Michel Houellebecq "He was a man wracked by self-certainties" - of B.S. Johnson, avant-garde novelist "Women only like me for my mind." - Morrissey (above) "Whoever attaches a lot of value to the opinions of others pays them too much honour." - Arthur Schopenhauer BABES 'N' STUFF! In the latest twist to his ongoing semi-ironic celebrity-babe fixation problem, Oliver announces that he would very much like to meet sultry northern Girls Aloud stunna Kimberley Walsh, in order to talk to her about Jesus.
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SOME ACTS OLIVER ADMIRES/IS INFLUENCED BY/HAS STOLEN FROM
Oliver likes books, films, etc. He has recently been getting into the alienated and misanthropic commentaries of French novelist Michel Houellebecq (right, with whom he spookily shares a birthday), and is pretentious enough to see artistic parallels with his Worldview output, though Oliver has better tunes. He highly recommends the writings of namesake Oliver James, the popular psychologist, who explains why consumer society makes us so unhappy and why we can blame our parents or Margaret Thatcher for most of our ills. He is also a fan of the gritty social-realist cinema of Ken Loach, whose work adds fire to his political convictions while also reminding him of his own tough background in the ghettos of leafy North Oxford.
Much of Oliver's early output (and bits of it now) had a very political tone, and back in the 90's he often narrowly avoided having to have his lyrics sung by the voice of an actor. He admires all or some of the thought and writings of John Pilger, the late Paul Foot, Noam Chomsky, Mark Steel and the less noted Karl Marx (right). He was once a card-carrying member of the defunct Socialist Alliance, but is now a resolutely armchair activist placing himself somewhere in the gaping chasm between the Labour left and the unconvincing marriage-of-convenience that is the Respect party. He went on the so-called "2 million" anti-war march in 2003 but only counted 1,999,998 other people! He thinks it's great that there's someone out there doing Michael Moore's job, but wishes it wasn't Michael Moore. Oliver would like to see Ireland united and things generally moved to the left. He is socially libertarian, which means he likes lots of things which are illegal under current UK law.
Despite lacking any himself, Oliver is a big fan of the above quality, and predictably sites Bill Hicks, Lenny Bruce, Chris Morris (right), Jeremy Hardy and the like as favourites. Others include Monty Python, Paul Whitehouse & co., Steve Coogan, Matthews & Lineham ("Big Train" etc.). He can however sit through an entire episode of "French & Saunders" without once feeling the slightest urge to laugh.
Below are some choice quotes from various luminaries which echo Oliver's, er, worldview. He sometimes passes them off as his own.
Reacting to the news: Girls Aloud's Kimberley Walsh, yesterday. 
