Elvis Costello Quotes

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 followed The Byrds a lot, and then when they did a country styled record it made me curious to know who these people were that they liked.

Once I had recognized that it was not my vocation to write a happy ending, I did my damnedest to avoid one entirely. I once referred to this process as “Messing up my life, so I could write stupid little songs about it,” and I can’t improve on that description here, but then songs are never exactly taken from life.

While you lie in the dark, afraid to breathe and you beg and you promise And you bargain and you plead Sometimes you confuse me with Santa Claus It's the big white beard I suppose. Im going up to the pole, where you folks die of cold I might be gone for a while if you need me.

We’d booked twelve weeks of studio time, a fantastic amount of leeway, given that my first record was cut in a total of twenty-four hours and This Year’s Model in a mere eleven days.

I took my better nature out, drowned it in a babbling stream/took the blossom of my youth and blew it all to smithereens.

Can a mere song change people’s minds? I doubt that it is so, but a song can infiltrate your heart and the heart may change your mind.

She said that's that. I don't wanna chitter-chat. Turn it down a little bit or turn it down flat.
Pump it up when you don't really need it. Pump it up until you can feel it.

If I am frightened then I can hide it
If I am crying, I'll call it laughter
If I am haunted, I'll call it my imaginary friend
If I am bleeding I'll call it wine
But if you leave me then I am broken
And if I'm broken then only death remains

There is music that seems to belong to you the moment that you hear it, and music about which you must be patient, awaiting the hour when it may reveal itself to you.

These are the sort of things that push you on in music — the curiosity, a passion for new ideas. It's important to keep restoring that, and at the same time, hold on to the core things about music that whenever you pick the simplest form of instrument; guitar or piano, you can find a song that's worthwhile.

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.

There's a girl here and She's almost you...

"I wish you luck with a capital "F"."

Now wild-eyed with the last of his vapor, her husband leapt to his feet and bellowed a desperate, enigmatic question to the first glimmer of dawn light. “Did you ever see a stare like a Persian cat?” And then, out like that light, he fell back in a stupor. •

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