Elvis Costello Quotes

I'm just the mere shadow of my former selfishness. I crave the silhouette of your kiss.

I used to be disgusted; now I try to be amused.

I'd been to Memphis before, but we stayed out of Memphis early on in the late 70s for obvious reasons. People were very sensitive about Elvis Presley, and my stage name obviously would be provocative to some people in that area at that time.

There are five things to write songs about: I'm leaving you. You're leaving me. I want you. You don't want me. I believe in something. Five subjects, and 12 notes. For all that, we musicians do pretty well.

I believe that music is connected by human passions and curiosities rather than by marketing strategies.

I started with rock n' roll and...then you start to take it apart like a child with a toy and you see there's blues and there's country...Then you go back from country into American music...and you end up in Scotland and Ireland eventually.

I feel like a juggler running out of hands.

People think it is all about country music, and I know a lot of country music has come out of there, but like Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dillon was recorded there. A lot of great records; R&B records, jazz records. It's a lot of great players and great studios.

I can't say anymore than I love you. Anything else would be a waste of breath.

Don't wear your heart on your sleeve when your remarks are off the cuff.

As I walk through This wicked world Searchin' for light in the darkness of insanity, I ask myself Is all hope lost? Is there only pain and hatred, and misery? And each time I feel like this inside, There's one thing I wanna know: What's so funny 'bout Peace, Love, & Understanding?

And I don't feel any form of music is beyond me in the sense of that I don't understand it or I don't have some love for some part of it.

The radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools tryin' to anesthetize the way that you feel.

The people with the most resources are the federal government. If you can invade a country halfway across the world in a matter of days, you can surely come to the aid of your own citizens in a shorter order of time.

Women hear rhythm differently than men.

Maybe I just never learned my harmony part, because what everybody says sounds odd to them sounds perfectly natural to me.

I wish you luck with a capital F.

Music is more like water than a rhinoceros. It doesn't charge madly down one path. It runs away in every direction.

History repeats the old conceits, the glib replies, the same defeats.

Don't start me talking, I could talk all night. My mind goes sleepwalking while I'm putting the world right.

They say you better listen to the voice of reason But they don't give you any choice 'cause they think that it's treason. So you had better do as you are told. You better listen to the radio.

Your mind is made up but your mouth is undone.

It's the damage that we do and never know. It's the words that we don't say that scare me so.

Songs are more powerful than books.

And I'm up while the dawn is breaking, even though my heart is aching. I should be drinking a toast to absent friends instead of these comedians.

I've been lucky to listen to lots of different types of music.

There are many critics who have an idealised version of where my strengths lie.

[Commercial radio] is owned by one or two corporations now, and they're not in the music business. They're in the advertising business.... So let's not kid ourselves. If you want to hear music, go buy a guitar.

Morrissey writes wonderful song titles, but sadly he often forgets to write the song.

People become so deeply attached to the sound of one period that they blow a fuse when you move on. I've heard people complain bitterly about recordings they haven't even heard.

My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant.

Though the passion still flutters and flickers, it never got into our knickers.

Well, T Bone's had a remarkable career as a producer since the time that we first worked together. He was dividing his time between recording and producing when we first met, and touring. We toured together and we were great friends.

You need a platform upon which to release an orchestral record, otherwise it's just going to be an obscurity.

Imagination is a powerful deceiver.

Why can't a man stand alone? Must he be burdened by all that he's taught to consider his own? His skin and his station, his kin and his crown, his flag and his nation They just weigh him down

Nonsense prevails, modesty fails Grace and virtue turn into stupidity While the calendar fades almost all barricades to a pale compromise And our leaders have feasts on the backsides of beasts They still think they're the gods of antiquity If something you missed didn't even exist It was just an ideal is it such a surprise?

The battle with the bottle is nothing so novel.

She said she was working for the ABC news, it was as much of the alphabet as she knew how to use.

Oh I used to be disgusted and now I try to be amused. But since their wings have got rusted, you know, the angels wanna wear my red shoes.

Really the only thing holding a lot of records together is the personality of the singer, and the will to write all of these different things.

Sometimes I write notes that I have difficulty singing.

I find humming is very useful.

My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant, someone who disrupts the daily drag of life just enough to leave the victim thinking there's maybe more to it all than the mere hum-drum quality of existence.

These are the sort of things that push you on in music - the curiosity, a passion for new ideas.

There is something wrong with you if you don't get angry about something.

The theme of exile is attractive to me, because it's sort of like the family business. Not just music, but travel.

And over the last ten years, after my work with the Brodsky Quartet, I had the opportunity to write arrangements for chamber group, chamber orchestra, jazz orchestra, symphony orchestra even.

And obviously, when I started out, I had a little bit more curiosity than some, and went seeking out the original artists, or in some cases searching up country music.

I've never had any real concern about posterity. I hope some people will be sorry when I'm not here, but I'm not playing for that.