Elvis Costello Quotes
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Was it a millionaire who said, "Imagine no possessions"?
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Though the passion still flutters and flickers, it never got into our knickers.
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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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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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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 could promise that I'll always be true to you, but we may not live to be so old.
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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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Your mind is made up but your mouth is undone.
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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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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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Certain songs have been written years apart, but they have a natural continuity to my mind.
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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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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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Good manners and bad breath will get you nowhere.
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The cost of living in sin would make a poor man out of Paul Getty.
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The battle with the bottle is nothing so novel.
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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.
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I wish you luck with a capital F.
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My grandfather and my father disagreed about music, not least of all because my dad wanted to improvise. It wasn't just that he wanted to play different music; it was just that he came off the dots.
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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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The theme of exile is attractive to me, because it's sort of like the family business. Not just music, but travel.
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Patsy Cline belongs shoulder-to-shoulder with Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald.