Music Quotes by Elvis Costello

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

— Elvis Costello

Songs are more powerful than books.

— Elvis Costello

“It was a real party of swells.”

— Elvis Costello

People speak with enormous pomposity and arrogance about music.

— Elvis Costello

Serious music usually doesn't pay.

— Elvis Costello

My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant.

— Elvis Costello

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

— Elvis Costello

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

— Elvis Costello

The theme of exile is attractive to me, because it's sort of like the family business. Not just music, but travel.

— Elvis Costello

Certain songs have been written years apart, but they have a natural continuity to my mind.

— Elvis Costello

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

— Elvis Costello

I can write orchestrations, but I can't sight-read music and play at the same time. I don't have enough facility.

— Elvis Costello

Writing about music is like dancing about architecture - it's really a stupid thing to want to do.

— Elvis Costello

Music is more like water than a rhinoceros. It doesn't charge madly down one path. It runs away in every direction.

— Elvis Costello

Morrissey writes wonderful song titles, but sadly he often forgets to write the song.

— Elvis Costello

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…

— 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

[Commercial] radio is absolutely the enemy of music. They are my sworn and mortal enemy, and I will have nothing to do…

— Elvis Costello

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…

— 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

Obviously I got known for some other songs early on, and some of those were rock'n'roll songs. Some of them were melodic…

— Elvis Costello

And obviously, when I started out, I had a little bit more curiosity than some, and went seeking out the original artists,…

— Elvis Costello

[Commercial radio] is owned by one or two corporations now, and they're not in the music business. They're in the advertising business……

— Elvis Costello

People think it is all about country music, and I know a lot of country music has come out of there, but…

— Elvis Costello

You must hold on to the sort of finger-painting aspect of music. That's something I learned, particularly from listening to Neil Young.…

— Elvis Costello

I just got into it like a lot of people through the rock 'n' roll bands in the late '60s that turned…

— Elvis Costello

I'm drawing from two generations back how to think about music, how to think about why you travel to make music, what…

— Elvis Costello

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

— Elvis Costello

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

— Elvis Costello

My grandfather and my father disagreed about music, not least of all because my dad wanted to improvise. It wasn't just that…

— Elvis Costello

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…

— Elvis Costello

My dad had a steady job with a really major dance band from '54 till '68, and then quit because he wanted…

— Elvis Costello

There are five things to write songs about: I'm leaving you. You're leaving me. I want you. You don't want me. I…

— Elvis Costello

I don't think I was ever particularly mean. I can certainly think of some idiotic exchanges I've had. I was accused of…

— Elvis Costello

I mistrust these people in music industry who can be everybody. This is where technology dictates to them. I mistrust that, that…

— Elvis Costello

I started with rock n' roll and...then you start to take it apart like a child with a toy and you see…

— 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…

— Elvis Costello

It's not crazy to want to have certain songs be developed harmonically and still want to make noise with the guitar. And…

— Elvis Costello