Elvis Costello Quotes - Page 2

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?

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.

Happiness isn't a fortune in a cookie. It's deeper, wider, funnier, and more transporting than that.

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

Writing about music is like dancing about architecture - it's really a stupid thing to want to do.

[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.

The battle with the bottle is nothing so novel.

There are a lot of things that you can like at a distance without spending a huge amount of time pondering. It's not so complicated.

Your mind is made up but your mouth is undone.

I find humming is very useful.

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.

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.

Anything that has to travel all the way down from your cerebellum to your fingertips, there's a lot of things that can happen on the journey. Sometimes I'll listen to records, my own stuff, and I think god, the original idea for this was so much better than the mutation that we arrived at.

I've never felt British. I'm just not interested in national identity. I don't know why.

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

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

It's the stupid details that my heart is breaking for.

Imagination is a powerful deceiver.

I'm not going to get too sentimental, like those other sticker valentines, 'cause I don't know if you are loving some body. I only know it isn't mine.

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

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.

I knew I was in trouble, but I thought I was in hell.

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

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.

Sleeping with forgiveness in your heart for me.