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" 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. "

Elvis Costello

Way

Audience

Know

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

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

Elvis Costello

Harmony

Because

" 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. "

Elvis Costello

True

Writing

" 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. "

" I find humming is very useful. "

" 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. "

" Very similar experience happened last year when we released this album, North. It was on Deutsche Grammophon, it was very, very honest. It was the most honest record I've ever written. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" Smokey Robinson writes the heartfelt songs, whereas it was my job to write the songs about weakness and failure in love. "

" 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. "

" Obviously the people that I admired, like the Beatles, were really into rock'n'roll, but it was already a little past rock'n'roll when I started listening and making my own choices about 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

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

" 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. "

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

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

" Women hear rhythm differently than men. "

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

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

Elvis Costello

Happiness

" You need a platform upon which to release an orchestral record, otherwise it's just going to be an obscurity. "

" 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. "

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