Elvis Costello Quotes & Sayings

You're drinking vintage Elvis Presley wine. — Elvis Costello

She pulls the eyes out with a face like a magnet. — Elvis Costello

You have to face the fact that I have no reputation as a composer; I have my reputation as a songwriter and a performer-and that opportunity came this summer, when I was invited to perform at the Lincoln Centre festival in New York ... three nights. — Elvis Costello

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

Obviously the people that I admired, like the Beatles, were really into rock'n'roll, but it was already a little past rock'n'roll when I started listening and making my own choices about music. — Elvis Costello

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. — Elvis Costello

When you're working with the same band you kind of know their style inside out, and even when you've been working for seven years with the same people, suddenly they'll do something you didn't even think they were capable of. — Elvis Costello

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

Sometimes I wish that I could stop you from talking, when I hear the silly things that you say. — Elvis Costello

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

[Commercial] radio is absolutely the enemy of music. They are my sworn and mortal enemy, and I will have nothing to do with them. — Elvis Costello

Was it a millionaire who said, "Imagine no possessions"? — Elvis Costello

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 — Elvis Costello

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. — Elvis Costello

I hear they're givin' you a bad reputation
just because you've never been denied.
You try to say you've done it all before,
baby, you know that you just get tired.
Yet everybody loves you so much, girl,
I just don't know how you stand the strain.
Oh, I, I'm the one who's here tonight,
and I don't wanna do it all in vain. — Elvis Costello

I found with this record I had to really be strong-willed, because in the past I've tended to tinker and add a thing or take a thing away, and nearly always been wrong. — Elvis Costello

What do we care, if the world is a joke? We'll give it a big kiss, we'll give it a poke. Death wears a big hat cause he's a big bloke. — Elvis Costello

There's a girl in this dress,
there's always a girl in distress. — Elvis Costello

I'm goin' to take a little trip, down paradise's endless shores. They say that travel broadens the mind, till you can't get your head out of doors. — Elvis Costello

Elvis Presley and Puccini shall return. — Elvis Costello

[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. — Elvis Costello

People tend to repeat the same quotes at me that I said when I was 23. And of course, you say things then, and sometimes they're ill-advised. — Elvis Costello

The only two things that motivate me and that matter to me are revenge
and guilt. — Elvis Costello

Can a mere song change a people's minds? I doubt that it is so. But a song can infiltrate your heart and the heart may change your mind. — Elvis Costello

I can write orchestrations, but I can't sight-read music and play at the same time. I don't have enough facility. — Elvis Costello

You think you're alone until you realize you're in it.
Now fear is here to stay,
love is here for a visit. — Elvis Costello

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

Those days she was just a beautiful girl, now she's framed and hung up. — Elvis Costello

I knew I was in trouble, but I thought I was in hell. — Elvis Costello

I wish you luck with a capital "F". — Elvis Costello

My grandfather and my father disagreed about music, not least of all because my dad wanted to improvise. It wasn't just that he wanted to play different music; it was just that he came off the dots. — Elvis Costello

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. — Elvis Costello

I find humming is very useful. — Elvis Costello

When you work with new people, I think that it throws all of the matters into relief, because you have to explain yourself every time. It's like crossing a new border. They want to see your documents. — Elvis Costello

I get very frustrated by this term 'genre exercise.' I mean, what exactly is that? Genre is not really relevant when you are writing a song; hopefully you are doing it to explore something, to create something, and I don't agree that any of my albums are genre exercises. — Elvis Costello

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

Obviously I got known for some other songs early on, and some of those were rock'n'roll songs. Some of them were melodic pop songs. And I've done lots of different things, as you know, but every so often I get drawn back. — Elvis Costello

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

I don't wanna be a lover,
I just wanna be your victim. — Elvis Costello

Why'd you have to say that there's always someone who can do it better than I can And don't you think that I know that walkin' on water won't make me a miracle man — Elvis Costello

Very similar experience happened last year when we released this album, North. It was on Deutsche Grammophon, it was very, very honest. It was the most honest record I've ever written. — Elvis Costello

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. — Elvis Costello

You swore you wouldn't shout. If it's not your punch, then it's your pout. — Elvis Costello

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. — Elvis Costello

A lot of pop music has come out of people failing to copy their model and accidentally creating something new. The closer you get to your ideal, the less original you sound. — Elvis Costello

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

You do have to be a bit careful with your voice. It is an instrument. — Elvis Costello

For all the courage that we never had, I'm just about glad. — Elvis Costello

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. — Elvis Costello

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. — Elvis Costello

Don't tell me you don't know what love is When you're old enough to know better. — Elvis Costello

I've worked hard, every single day since I left school. I think I have a Protestant work ethic. — Elvis Costello

Oh, I said 'I'm so happy, I could die.'
She said 'Drop dead,' then left with another guy. — Elvis Costello

I'd be very suspicious of anybody that seems to have to move to the next level of expression. I distrust that: now I'm writing a book, now I'm being an actor. It should be a natural thing. I think it's a natural thing for you to act. But I think that people that feel that, because they've written one maybe quite beautiful love song that equips them to play Romeo, is probably misguided. — Elvis Costello

Serious music usually doesn't pay. — Elvis Costello

It's a dangerous game that comedy plays. Sometimes it tells you the truth; sometimes it delays it. — Elvis Costello

When they finally put you in the ground, I'll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down. — Elvis Costello

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

Clowntime is over Time to take cover While others just talk and talk Somebody's watching where the others don't walk. — Elvis Costello

The long arm of the law slides up the outskirts of town. — Elvis Costello

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

Sometimes I write notes that I have difficulty singing. — Elvis Costello

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. — Elvis Costello

Oh, I know that she's disgusted,
cause she's feeling so abused.
She gets tired of the lust,
but it's so hard to refuse. — Elvis Costello

I'm a working travelling musician, but just on a bigger scale. — Elvis Costello

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? — Elvis Costello

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. — Elvis Costello

Life for me is about movement. — Elvis Costello

I don't think I was ever particularly mean. I can certainly think of some idiotic exchanges I've had. I was accused of destroying pop music, like Wagner destroyed opera - a guy in Germany started ranting that at me. — Elvis Costello

She's no angel.
He's no saint. — Elvis Costello

I could promise that I'll always be true to you, but we may not live to be so old. — Elvis Costello

The wages of sin are an expensive infection. — Elvis Costello

People speak with enormous pomposity and arrogance about music. — Elvis Costello

I've always felt writing a song was a bit like going on location. That's true in an almost literal sense. Where you are seeps in somehow. — Elvis Costello

I wanna bite the hand that feeds me. I wanna bite that hand so badly. I want to make them wish they'd never seen me. — Elvis Costello

Don't get smart or sarcastic
He snaps back just like elastic
Spare us the theatrics and the verbal gymnastics
We break wise guys just like matchsticks — Elvis Costello

No use wishing now for any other sin. — Elvis Costello

Certain songs have been written years apart, but they have a natural continuity to my mind. — Elvis Costello

Well there's a line that you must toe and it'll soon be time to go but it's darker than you know in those Complicated Shadows — Elvis Costello

I find it to be the ultimate backhanded compliment when you are compared against yourself. — Elvis Costello

I mistrust these people in music industry who can be everybody. This is where technology dictates to them. I mistrust that, that in somehow the chips capture the soul of a player, that's patent nonsense. — Elvis Costello

You've got a chemistry class; I want a piece of your mind;
You don't know what you started when you mixed it up with mine ... — Elvis Costello

Sometimes I wonder if we're livin' in the same land.
Why do you wanna be my friend
when I feel like a juggler
running out of hands? — Elvis Costello

I was watching while you're dancing away,
our love got fractured in the echo and sway.
How come everybody wants to be your friend?
You know that it still hurts me just to say it. — Elvis Costello

Some people can't physically hear things. A kid that listens to Metallica or something can't hear that, because he's filled himself up with this stuff, he physically can't hear a banjo or a harp or something. — Elvis Costello

'Content' is a word that has never sat well with me. Like 'maturity'. They are two words I've never liked. I think they imply some sort of decay. A settling. — Elvis Costello

You can't live in the past, and I don't. I'm not nostalgic about my own work at all. — Elvis Costello

It was a real party of swells. — Elvis Costello

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

It's a breath you took too late.
It's a death that's worse than fate. — Elvis Costello

But there are things in Il Sogno that the methods of The Delivery Man could never achieve. — Elvis Costello

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

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

We're all just animals. That's all we are, and everything else is just an elaborate justification of our instincts. That's where music comes from. And romantic poetry. And bad novels. — Elvis Costello

Then I became an altar boy because of the solemn face, but I got thrown out at fourteen for laughing, because the priest used to mumble everything except the church plate takings. — Elvis Costello

Cause somewhere in the Quizling Clinic, there's a shorthand typist taking seconds over minutes. — Elvis Costello

There's no such thing as an original sin. — Elvis Costello

Death wears a big hat. — Elvis Costello

Days of Dutch courage, just three French letters, and a German sense of humour. — Elvis Costello

It's what's on the record not what labels on it. You know, that's like getting a box of cornflakes and eating the cardboard. — Elvis Costello