Elvis Costello Quotes About Songs

Quotes about: Songs

• Morrissey writes wonderful song titles, but sadly he often forgets to write the song.

  Elvis Costello

  Song, Writing, Titles

• 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

  Music, Song, Believe

• 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

  Song, Rocks, Different

  "Interview about The Delivery Man". Interview with Brian Wise, www.elviscostello.info. April 10, 2004.

• 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

  Song, Crazy, Guitar

  "Elvis Costello: The ESQ&A". Interview with Scott Raab, www.esquire.com. December 17, 2013.

• I think when I was younger I was not very good at writing love songs that didn't have a twist.

  Elvis Costello

  Song, Writing, Thinking

• Certain songs have been written years apart, but they have a natural continuity to my mind.

  Elvis Costello

  Song, Years, Mind

  "Elvis Costello: The ESQ&A". Interview with Scott Raab, www.esquire.com. December 17, 2013.

• 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.

  Elvis Costello

  Song, Writing, Location

• 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

  Beautiful, Song, Moving

  "Summit Talk". Option magazine Interview with Tom Waits, tomwaitsfan.com. July 1989.

• Smokey Robinson writes the heartfelt songs, whereas it was my job to write the songs about weakness and failure in love.

  Elvis Costello

  Song, Jobs, Writing

• I get very frustrated by this term 'genre exercise.' I mean, what exactly is that? Genre is not really relevant when you are writing a song; hopefully you are doing it to explore something, to create something, and I don't agree that any of my albums are genre exercises.

  Elvis Costello

  Song, Writing, Mean

• Songs are more powerful than books.

  Elvis Costello

  Music, Song, Powerful

  "Elvis Costello: What I've Learned" by Tom Junod, www.esquire.com. November 2003.

• It's what I do. I don't deserve any awards for this, it's just music. It's just writing songs. You sit down, you write a song, you record it. You tour and play the songs live, dress them up a bit differently, or dress them down.

  Elvis Costello

  Song, Writing, Awards

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