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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 believe in something. Five subjects, and 12 notes. For all that, we musicians do pretty well.

Elvis Costello

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Elvis Costello
Age: 69
Born: 1955
Born: August 25
Composer
Guitarist
Record Producer
Singer-Songwriter
London
England
Declan Patrick MacManus
Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus
Declan MacManus
Writing
Subjects
Something
Pretty
Believe
Five
Things
Song
Musicians
Write
Notes
Music
Leaving
Wells
Musician
Well
Songs

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Writing about music is like dancing about architecture - it's really a stupid thing to want to do.
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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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No use wishing now for any other sin.
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Days of Dutch courage, just three French letters, and a German sense of humour.
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I'm drawing from two generations back how to think about music, how to think about why you travel to make music, what the possible pitfalls of that are for the way your life is structured. The good and bad of all of it get into the mix of what's created, what you're creating.
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Don't tell me you don't know what love is When you're old enough to know better.
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My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant.
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They say you better listen to the voice of reason But they don't give you any choice 'cause they think that it's treason. So you had better do as you are told. You better listen to the radio.
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Music is more like water than a rhinoceros. It doesn't charge madly down one path. It runs away in every direction.
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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.
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I've never had any real concern about posterity. I hope some people will be sorry when I'm not here, but I'm not playing for that.
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When you work with new people, I think that it throws all of the matters into relief, because you have to explain yourself every time. It's like crossing a new border. They want to see your documents.
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I think when I was younger I was not very good at writing love songs that didn't have a twist.
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