And I don't feel any form of music is beyond me in the sense of that I don't understand it or I don't have some love for some part of it.
Elvis Costello

And obviously, when I started out, I had a little bit more curiosity than some, and went seeking out the original artists, or in some cases searching up country music.
Elvis Costello

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

But there are things in Il Sogno that the methods of The Delivery Man could never achieve.
Elvis Costello

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

I find humming is very useful.
Elvis Costello

I found with this record I had to really be strong-willed, because in the past I've tended to tinker and add a thing or take a thing away, and nearly always been wrong.
Elvis Costello

I know that when I make a record like The Delivery Man as a contrast to even Il Sogno, this is going to reach a wider audience, because it communicates in that very direct way.
Elvis Costello

I used to be disgusted; now I try to be amused.
Elvis Costello

I'd been to Memphis before, but we stayed out of Memphis early on in the late 70s for obvious reasons. People were very sensitive about Elvis Presley, and my stage name obviously would be provocative to some people in that area at that time.
Elvis Costello


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

Maybe I just never learned my harmony part, because what everybody says sounds odd to them sounds perfectly natural to me.
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 when I'm playing this kind of music, I always have him in my mind. I wish I could play like Hubert.
Elvis Costello

My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant.
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 pop songs. And I've done lots of different things, as you know, but every so often I get drawn back.
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 I started listening and making my own choices about music.
Elvis Costello

Really the only thing holding a lot of records together is the personality of the singer, and the will to write all of these different things.
Elvis Costello

Sometimes I write notes that I have difficulty singing.
Elvis Costello

There are many critics who have an idealised version of where my strengths lie.
Elvis Costello

There's no such thing as an original sin.
Elvis Costello