Elvis Costello Quotes

Well, I used to be disgusted.
Now I try to be amused.

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

My sense of history in music is much greater than a lot of people's. I listen a lot further back in the whole history of music. It's not just pop music of the last 20, 30, 40, 50 years. I'm listening to stuff from hundreds of years ago as well, because you can learn from everything.

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

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

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?

I can't actually play any instrument properly. I can't read music. And here's the New York Times calling me the new George Gershwin. It was so ridiculous, really embarrassing. It was embarrassing to watch these people fall into the trap of their own critical conceits.

Lie down baby now don't say a word There there baby your vision is blurred Your head is so sore from all of that thinking I don't want to hurt you now But I think you're shrinking.

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

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.

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

So don't try to touch my heart, it's darker than you think
And don't try to read my mind because it's full of disappearing ink

There's always something that's smoldering somewhere
I know it don't make a difference to you But oh! It sure made a difference to me You'll see me off in the distance, I hope At the other end At the other end of the telescope.

"Was it a millionaire who said "imagine no possessions?"
A poor little schoolboy who said "we don't need no lessons?

Nice girls, not one with a defect,
Cellophane shrink-wrapped, so correct.
Red dogs under illegal legs,
She looks so good that he gets down and begs.<p>She is watching the detectives.
"Ooh, it's so cute."
She's watching the detectives.
When they shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot.
They beat him up until the teardrops start,
But he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart.