Elvis Costello's Quotes

Well, T Bone's had a remarkable career as a producer since the time that we first worked together. He was dividing his time between recording and producing when we first met, and touring. We toured together and we were great friends.

You have to face the fact that I have no reputation as a composer; I have my reputation as a songwriter and a performer-and that opportunity came this summer, when I was invited to perform at the Lincoln Centre festival in New York... three nights.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

I find humming is very useful.

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

Maybe I just never learned my harmony part, because what everybody says sounds odd to them sounds perfectly natural to me.

My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant.

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.

Sometimes I write notes that I have difficulty singing.

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

There's no such thing as an original sin.

These are the sort of things that push you on in music - the curiosity, a passion for new ideas.

Well, I've had a lot of different experiences in music over the years. And not everything you do can satisfy everybody's idealised version of you.

Women hear rhythm differently than men.

You need a platform upon which to release an orchestral record, otherwise it's just going to be an obscurity.