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" 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

Think

Music

I Can

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

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

Elvis Costello

Curiosity

Searching

" 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. "

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

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

" I find humming is very useful. "

" There was not a lot of rock n' roll in the house. Our parents didn't think it was very groovy, and I tend to agree with them. If you grew up with Charlie Parker, Bill Haley wasn't very hip. "

Elvis Costello

Rock

Think

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

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

" Sometimes I write notes that I have difficulty singing. "

" Life for me is about movement. "

Elvis Costello

About

Life

" Well, I've had a lot of different experiences in music over the years. And not everything you do can satisfy everybody's idealised version of you. "

" There are many critics who have an idealised version of where my strengths lie. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

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

" 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. "

" Women hear rhythm differently than men. "

" 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. "

" Songs are more powerful than books. "

Elvis Costello

Books

Than

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

" 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. "

" The Internet is overrated. It's much smaller an innovation than people think it is. I don't think it's changed the way anybody makes music. "

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

" There's no such thing as an original sin. "