Quote

Why can't a man stand alone? Must he be burdened by all that he's taught to consider his own? His skin and his station, his kin and his crown, his flag and his nation They just weigh him down

Elvis Costello

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Consider
Crown
Nation
Station
Taught
Flag
Stand
Crowns
Alone
Flags
Nations
Stations
Must
Skin
Burdened
Men
Skins
Weigh

More quotes by Elvis Costello

Image
[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.
Elvis Costello
Image
Music is more like water than a rhinoceros. It doesn't charge madly down one path. It runs away in every direction.
Elvis Costello
Image
I'm a man with a mission in two or three editions And I'm giving you a longing look Everyday, everyday, everyday I write the book.
Elvis Costello
Image
Your mind is made up but your mouth is undone.
Elvis Costello
Image
I could promise that I'll always be true to you, but we may not live to be so old.
Elvis Costello
Image
Anything that has to travel all the way down from your cerebellum to your fingertips, there's a lot of things that can happen on the journey. Sometimes I'll listen to records, my own stuff, and I think god, the original idea for this was so much better than the mutation that we arrived at.
Elvis Costello
Image
And over the last ten years, after my work with the Brodsky Quartet, I had the opportunity to write arrangements for chamber group, chamber orchestra, jazz orchestra, symphony orchestra even.
Elvis Costello
Image
Writing about music is like dancing about architecture - it's really a stupid thing to want to do.
Elvis Costello
Image
As I walk through This wicked world Searchin' for light in the darkness of insanity, I ask myself Is all hope lost? Is there only pain and hatred, and misery? And each time I feel like this inside, There's one thing I wanna know: What's so funny 'bout Peace, Love, & Understanding?
Elvis Costello
Image
Certain songs have been written years apart, but they have a natural continuity to my mind.
Elvis Costello
Image
Obviously I got known for some other songs early on, and some of those were rock'n'roll songs. Some of them were melodic pop songs. And I've done lots of different things, as you know, but every so often I get drawn back.
Elvis Costello
Image
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
Image
I think when I was younger I was not very good at writing love songs that didn't have a twist.
Elvis Costello
Image
Songs are more powerful than books.
Elvis Costello
Image
You're drinking vintage Elvis Presley wine.
Elvis Costello
Image
She said she was working for the ABC news, it was as much of the alphabet as she knew how to use.
Elvis Costello
Image
Sometimes I write notes that I have difficulty singing.
Elvis Costello
Image
Even in a perfect world where everyone was equal. I'd still own the film rights and be working on the sequel.
Elvis Costello
Image
No use wishing now for any other sin.
Elvis Costello
Image
You must hold on to the sort of finger-painting aspect of music. That's something I learned, particularly from listening to Neil Young. Tom Waits is another one, because Tom's music is incredibly sophisticated and beautifully arranged, but he's using a toolbox that's unlike anybody else's.
Elvis Costello