You can be addicted to misery the same way as you can be addicted to drugs. Elvis Costello More Quotes by Elvis Costello More Quotes From Elvis Costello Don't tell me you don't know what love is When you're old enough to know better. Elvis Costello enough knows love-is Clowntime is over Time to take cover While others just talk and talk Somebody's watching where the others don't walk. Elvis Costello walks Theres so many fish in the sea That only rise up in the sweat and smoke like mercury Elvis Costello mercury sweat sea I wanna bite the hand that feeds me. I wanna bite that hand so badly. I want to make them wish they'd never seen me. Elvis Costello wish want hands 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. Elvis Costello voice giving thinking 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 writing men book There's no such thing as an original sin. Elvis Costello original-sin originals sin It's not crazy to want to have certain songs be developed harmonically and still want to make noise with the guitar. And you can have both. Elvis Costello guitar crazy song 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. Elvis Costello drawing two thinking 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 painting waiting listening 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. Elvis Costello dad play jobs My dad's father was a White Star Line trumpet player in the '20s. It shaped the way that I think about music. My grandfather was classically trained, military trained. He was an orphan who ended up in the Military School of Music in Kneller Hall. Elvis Costello dad stars father People speak with enormous pomposity and arrogance about music. Elvis Costello arrogance speak people 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 journey ideas thinking I mistrust these people in music industry who can be everybody. This is where technology dictates to them. I mistrust that, that in somehow the chips capture the soul of a player, that's patent nonsense. Elvis Costello technology player people 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. Elvis Costello rocks glasses stupid When you're working with the same band you kind of know their style inside out, and even when you've been working for seven years with the same people, suddenly they'll do something you didn't even think they were capable of. Elvis Costello people years thinking I'd be very suspicious of anybody that seems to have to move to the next level of expression. I distrust that: now I'm writing a book, now I'm being an actor. It should be a natural thing. I think it's a natural thing for you to act. But I think that people that feel that, because they've written one maybe quite beautiful love song that equips them to play Romeo, is probably misguided. Elvis Costello song beautiful moving Some people can't physically hear things. A kid that listens to Metallica or something can't hear that, because he's filled himself up with this stuff, he physically can't hear a banjo or a harp or something. Elvis Costello stuff kids people Certain songs have been written years apart, but they have a natural continuity to my mind. Elvis Costello mind song years