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" 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

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" 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. "

" Songs are more powerful than books. "

Elvis Costello

Books

Than

" 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. "

" 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

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

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

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

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

" 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. "

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

" I find humming is very useful. "

" 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

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

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

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

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

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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