Elvis Costello

Your mind is made up but your mouth is undone.

— Elvis Costello

Songs are more powerful than books.

— Elvis Costello

“It was a real party of swells.”

— Elvis Costello

I feel like a juggler running out of hands.

— Elvis Costello

I find humming is very useful.

— Elvis Costello

Women hear rhythm differently than men.

— Elvis Costello

There's no such thing as an original sin.

— Elvis Costello

The battle with the bottle is nothing so novel.

— Elvis Costello

Theres so many fish in the sea That only rise up in the sweat and smoke like mercury

— Elvis Costello

There's so many people to see. So many people to check up on and add to your collection.

— Elvis Costello

What's so funny about peace, love and understanding

— Elvis Costello

I'm not even sure what I want, but that's not the point - it's that I want it now.

— Elvis Costello

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

— Elvis Costello

Don't tell me you don't know what love is When you're old enough to know better.

— Elvis Costello

People speak with enormous pomposity and arrogance about music.

— Elvis Costello

Days of Dutch courage, just three French letters, and a German sense of humour.

— Elvis Costello

You think you're alone until you realize you're in it. Now fear is here to stay, love is here for a visit.

— Elvis Costello

“I took my better nature out, drowned it in a babbling stream/took the blossom of my youth and blew it all to…

— Elvis Costello

It's what's on the record not what labels on it. You know, that's like getting a box of cornflakes and eating the…

— Elvis Costello

I've always felt writing a song was a bit like going on location. That's true in an almost literal sense. Where you…

— Elvis Costello

“The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark. It scares you witless but with time you see things clear and…

— Elvis Costello

There was not a lot of rock n roll in the house. Our parents didnt think it was very groovy, and I…

— Elvis Costello

I became an altar boy because of the solemn face, but I got thrown out at fourteen for laughing. Because the priest…

— Elvis Costello

“I could say it was the nights when I was lonely and you were the only one who'd talk. I could tell…

— Elvis Costello

You have to face the fact that I have no reputation as a composer; I have my reputation as a songwriter and…

— Elvis Costello

When you work with new people, I think that it throws all of the matters into relief, because you have to explain…

— Elvis Costello

My dad's father was a White Star Line trumpet player in the '20s. It shaped the way that I think about music.…

— Elvis Costello

The people with the most resources are the federal government. If you can invade a country halfway across the world in a…

— Elvis Costello

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…

— Elvis Costello

Mention Hubert Sumlin, as well, because Hubert's a great man, and again, you know, I don't play the guitar very good, but…

— Elvis Costello

As I walk through This wicked world Searchin' for light in the darkness of insanity, I ask myself Is all hope lost?…

— Elvis Costello

Sometimes I write notes that I have difficulty singing. And you start talking yourself out of the bold melody and start wanting…

— Elvis Costello

Serious music usually doesn't pay.

— Elvis Costello

You'll never be alone in the bone orchard.

— Elvis Costello

“Death wears a big hat.”

— Elvis Costello

The wages of sin are an expensive infection.

— Elvis Costello

“He's got a mind like a sewer and a heart like a fridge.”

— Elvis Costello

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

— Elvis Costello

She's filing her nails while they are dragging the lake.

— Elvis Costello

The long arm of the law slides up the outskirts of town.

— Elvis Costello