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All Quotes by author - Elvis Costello

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

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

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I find humming is very useful. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I know that when I make a record like The Delivery Man as a contrast to even Il Sogno, this is going to reach a wider audience, because it communicates in that very direct way. "

" I'm a working travelling musician, but just on a bigger scale. "

" I think when I was younger I was not very good at writing love songs that didn't have a twist. "

" It's a petty thing, but I wouldn't join the Scouts when I was a kid, 'cause you had to swear allegiance to the queen. I'm just not a royalist. I think it's idiotic, a hereditary principle. "

" It's what I do. I don't deserve any awards for this, it's just music. It's just writing songs. You sit down, you write a song, you record it. You tour and play the songs live, dress them up a bit differently, or dress them down. "

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

" 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. "

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

" I've had an unusual life. A life far removed from most people's experience. "

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

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

" Life for me is about movement. "

" Living a very long time would be a very scary thing. "

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

" Mention Hubert Sumlin, as well, because Hubert's a great man, and again, you know, I don't play the guitar very good, but when I'm playing this kind of music, I always have him in my mind. I wish I could play like Hubert. "

" My family calls me Declan. But most people call me E.C. I think it comes from my dad. It's an Irish convention. You usually call the first child by the initials. "

" My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant. "

" 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. "

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