Elvis Costello Quotes
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Was it a millionaire who said, "Imagine no possessions"?
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I can write orchestrations, but I can't sight-read music and play at the same time. I don't have enough facility.
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Certain songs have been written years apart, but they have a natural continuity to my mind.
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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 cardboard.
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Nonsense prevails, modesty fails Grace and virtue turn into stupidity While the calendar fades almost all barricades to a pale compromise And our leaders have feasts on the backsides of beasts They still think they're the gods of antiquity If something you missed didn't even exist It was just an ideal is it such a surprise?
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Commercial radio is owned by one or two corporations now, and they're not in the music business. They're in the advertising business.... So let's not kid ourselves. If you want to hear music, go buy a guitar.
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You think you're alone until you realize you're in it. Now fear is here to stay, love is here for a visit.
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People speak with enormous pomposity and arrogance about music.
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What do we care, if the world is a joke? We'll give it a big kiss, we'll give it a poke. Death wears a big hat cause he's a big bloke.
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Your mind is made up but your mouth is undone.
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Commercial radio is absolutely the enemy of music. They are my sworn and mortal enemy, and I will have nothing to do with them.
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Good manners and bad breath will get you nowhere.
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There are a lot of things that you can like at a distance without spending a huge amount of time pondering. It's not so complicated.
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I'm not going to get too sentimental, like those other sticker valentines, 'cause I don't know if you are loving some body. I only know it isn't mine.
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Patsy Cline belongs shoulder-to-shoulder with Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald.
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History repeats the old conceits, the glib replies, the same defeats.
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Morrissey writes wonderful song titles, but sadly he often forgets to write the song.
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Now I just don't know who to tell to go to hell Who put the old devil in the distorted angel?
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I really thought twice about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when that came in. I always was of a mind that it's an inherently stupid idea to put something like that in a glass case.
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My dad had a steady job with a really major dance band from '54 till '68, and then quit because he wanted to play different music. He wanted to sing about peace. He believed in these things.