Top 100 Costello's Quotes

#1. I find it to be the ultimate backhanded compliment when you are compared against yourself.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #265
#2. There's a girl in this dress,
there's always a girl in distress.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #989
#3. I owe my allegiance to the working class.

Seamus Costello

Costello's Quotes #1945
#4. This Nation has realized significant environmental improvements over the last three decades.

Jerry Costello

Costello's Quotes #27664
#5. Every day more Americans watch their jobs being shipped overseas.

Jerry Costello

Costello's Quotes #32650
#6. And I'm up while the dawn is breaking, even though my heart is aching. I should be drinking a toast to absent friends instead of these comedians.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #35490
#7. You need a platform upon which to release an orchestral record, otherwise it's just going to be an obscurity.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #37881
#8. Clowntime is over Time to take cover While others just talk and talk Somebody's watching where the others don't walk.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #42748
#9. It was a real party of swells.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #46156
#10. all the grains of sand make the beach

Stephen Costello

Costello's Quotes #46395
#11. 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

Costello's Quotes #47243
#12. My family calls me Declan. But most people call me E.C. I think it comes from my dad. It's an Irish convention. You usually call the first child by the initials.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #51773
#13. Since 2000, we have lost 2.7 million manufacturing jobs, of which 500,000 jobs were in high-tech industries such as telecommunications and electronics.

Jerry Costello

Costello's Quotes #60313
#14. It's a breath you took too late.
It's a death that's worse than fate.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #62144
#15. I used to be disgusted. Now, I'm just amused...

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #79724
#16. Imagination is a powerful deceiver.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #117869
#17. I grew up on Jerry Lewis and Abbot and Costello, the Marx Brothers.

Drake Bell

Costello's Quotes #120825
#18. If you want to save, put money into superannuation, you will never find a better savings vehicle.

Peter Costello

Costello's Quotes #122685
#19. I think now we have a very unique opportunity, thanks to the election result, thanks to such a big vote for the Greens, to say you know what, we have to face it. Otherwise this generation will be robbing the next generation of their future, and that's immoral and unethical.

Tim Costello

Costello's Quotes #217998
#20. 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

Costello's Quotes #225543
#21. People think it is all about country music, and I know a lot of country music has come out of there, but like Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dillon was recorded there. A lot of great records; R&B records, jazz records. It's a lot of great players and great studios.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #229659
#22. It's a petty thing, but I wouldn't join the Scouts when I was a kid, 'cause you had to swear allegiance to the queen. I'm just not a royalist. I think it's idiotic, a hereditary principle.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #233069
#23. She's no angel.
He's no saint.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #241262
#24. Oh, I know that she's disgusted,
cause she's feeling so abused.
She gets tired of the lust,
but it's so hard to refuse.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #265815
#25. We're all gonna die, let's act accordingly.

Frank Costello

Costello's Quotes #266931
#26. 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

Costello's Quotes #301376
#27. 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.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #323967
#28. This whole conversation was turning into a twisted version of Abbot & Costello's Who's on First.

Kelly Moran

Costello's Quotes #331888
#29. It's the stupid details that my heart is breaking for.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #353294
#30. S you check your effects, check your reflection,
I'm so affected in the face of your affection

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #358838
#31. As I'm lying there at my funeral I would hope to hear somebody say, Look, he's still moving!

Peter Costello

Costello's Quotes #384424
#32. It's a dangerous game that comedy plays. Sometimes it tells you the truth; sometimes it delays it.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #394887
#33. Writing about music is like dancing about architecture - it's really a stupid thing to want to do.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #432054
#34. The theme of exile is attractive to me, because it's sort of like the family business. Not just music, but travel.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #473878
#35. 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

Costello's Quotes #557510
#36. Almost 70 percent of U.S. ag exports travel the upper Mississippi River and the Illinois waterway system.

Jerry Costello

Costello's Quotes #566568
#37. People are going to see both of us and think it's an Abbott and Costello kind of thing. It's not an easy switch. It's not an easy transition from TV to film.

Ray Romano

Costello's Quotes #569573
#38. When you work with new people, I think that it throws all of the matters into relief, because you have to explain yourself every time. It's like crossing a new border. They want to see your documents.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #618056
#39. I'd love to do 'Werther.' It's a great opera, and the music's so beautiful.

Stephen Costello

Costello's Quotes #620854
#40. 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

Costello's Quotes #633038
#41. So don't try to touch my heart, it's darker than you think
And don't try to read my mind because it's full of disappearing ink

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #638267
#42. The truth can't hurt you, it's just like the dark. It scares you witless but with time you see things clear and stark

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #663209
#43. What's so funny about peace, love and understanding

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #663399
#44. Those days she was just a beautiful girl, now she's framed and hung up.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #672855
#45. It's what's on the record not what labels on it. You know, that's like getting a box of cornflakes and eating the cardboard.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #721526
#46. I could say it was the nights when I was lonely
and you were the only one who'd talk.
I could tell you that I like your sensitivity,
when you know it's the way that you walk.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #765022
#47. 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

Costello's Quotes #782971
#48. I started with rock n' roll and ... then you start to take it apart like a child with a toy and you see there's blues and there's country ... Then you go back from country into American music ... and you end up in Scotland and Ireland eventually.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #806998
#49. He's such a drag
He's not insane
It's just that everybody
Has to feel his pain.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #856166
#50. 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

Costello's Quotes #888173
#51. When I first did 'Moby,' I didn't realize how taxing it would be. I was climbing fifty feet up in the air and climbing down. Literally, it's so busy, you feel you're on a ship. You're always moving; you're constantly adding clothes or taking them off, and there are many people on stage all the time!

Stephen Costello

Costello's Quotes #894447
#52. The Internet is overrated. It's much smaller an innovation than people think it is. I don't think it's changed the way anybody makes music.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #923811
#53. In the tiny torn up pieces of his mind he's irresistible too.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #929786
#54. When you decide to be something, you can be it. That's what they don't tell you in the church. When I was your age, they would say we can become cops or criminals. Today, what I'm saying to you is this: when you're facing a loaded gun, what's the difference?

Frank Costello

Costello's Quotes #996452
#55. But if I've done something wrong there's no "ifs" and "buts"
Cause I love you just as much as I hate your guts

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #1003803
#56. Population growth and development place additional stress on the Nation's water infrastructure and its ability to sustain hard-won water quality gains.

Jerry Costello

Costello's Quotes #1019308
#57. Why'd you have to say that there's always someone who can do it better than I can And don't you think that I know that walkin' on water won't make me a miracle man

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #1088648
#58. I think Australians are rightly suspicious of people who will try and use religion for another end. I don't think that's right and I don't think it should be done, but I think it should inform values, and it does.

Peter Costello

Costello's Quotes #1101024
#59. 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

Costello's Quotes #1119496
#60. I've had an unusual life. A life far removed from most people's experience.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #1151005
#61. What do we care, if the world is a joke? We'll give it a big kiss, we'll give it a poke. Death wears a big hat cause he's a big bloke.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #1158888
#62. The child's existence turned a plain world to riches. Her life raised up like this, the child giving point and purpose to each day, the care of him transforming her, widening and deepening her.

Mary Costello

Costello's Quotes #1198298
#63. I never look for music by genre. I look for an artist who puts a dependable trademark on things. Like Elvis Costello - he's a great songwriter who presents his songs in a number of contexts. I feel the same about my own music.

Todd Rundgren

Costello's Quotes #1209332
#64. She's filing her nails while they are dragging the lake.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #1218613
#65. 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

Costello's Quotes #1225759
#66. [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

Costello's Quotes #1240074
#67. There are some nights when you've spent so long analysing things that all that's left to do is get drunk.

Jane Costello

Costello's Quotes #1264903
#68. Coal is absolutely critical to our nation's economic health and global competitiveness.

Jerry Costello

Costello's Quotes #1280822
#69. What happens with 'Mad Men,' it's like an Elvis Costello album; I'll watch it, and then I immediately have to watch it again. AMC will play it back-to-back. I have a tendency to yell at it when my wife's not around because if she catches me yelling at 'Mad Men,' then it gets weird.

Michael Weatherly

Costello's Quotes #1281432
#70. Cause somewhere in the Quizling Clinic, there's a shorthand typist taking seconds over minutes.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #1292926
#71. There's so many people to see. So many people to check up on and add to your collection.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #1326035
#72. A husband is what's left of a sweetheart after the nerve has been killed.

Lou Costello

Costello's Quotes #1373204
#73. There's no justice in this world.

Frank Costello

Costello's Quotes #1386917
#74. 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

Costello's Quotes #1419634
#75. Smoke and Cigar Aficionado. It was a personal touch, a nod to bygone days, and Keith felt right at home here. A creature of habit, he'd been coming into Rudy's every weekday

Sean Costello

Costello's Quotes #1449831
#76. But it's easier to say 'I love you',
than 'Yours, sincerely' I suppose.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #1450302
#77. In celebration of this Earth Day, I encourage all Members of the House to support legislation aimed at investing in the improvement of water quality in our Nation's lakes, rivers, streams and estuaries.

Jerry Costello

Costello's Quotes #1469697
#78. In productions such as 'Anna Bolena' and 'Rigoletto,' the costumes are tailored, and they're tight. In 'Moby,' it's like you're wearing pajamas, and you have more freedom. It's very comfortable on stage.

Stephen Costello

Costello's Quotes #1473697
#79. 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

Costello's Quotes #1477481
#80. We're all just animals. That's all we are, and everything else is just an elaborate justification of our instincts. That's where music comes from. And romantic poetry. And bad novels.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #1493627
#81. Elvis Costello's song writing is so peerless and individualistic. It's storytelling and it's deeply intelligent and clever.

Chip Esten

Costello's Quotes #1495377
#82. 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

Costello's Quotes #1521542
#83. 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

Costello's Quotes #1550044
#84. Can a mere song change a people's minds? I doubt that it is so. But a song can infiltrate your heart and the heart may change your mind.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #1562868
#85. There's a girl here and She's almost you...

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #1563916
#86. 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

Costello's Quotes #1617401
#87. I'm not even sure what I want, but that's not the point - it's that I want it now.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #1633391
#88. Well there's a line that you must toe and it'll soon be time to go but it's darker than you know in those Complicated Shadows

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #1646738
#89. 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.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #1652821
#90. There's no such thing as an original sin.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #1654054
#91. 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

Costello's Quotes #1728356
#92. I'm goin' to take a little trip, down paradise's endless shores. They say that travel broadens the mind, till you can't get your head out of doors.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #1749323
#93. It's the damage that we do and never know. It's the words that we don't say that scare me so.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #1751355
#94. As a singer, you can't hear what's coming out of your throat; you're only hearing it from the inside, so you need a trusted person who knows how your voice works. It's like a car. You take it to the same mechanic because they know it inside out, and every time you get it back, it works fantastic.

Stephen Costello

Costello's Quotes #1774883
#95. Oh, well, that's not bad, I suppose. I mean, I'd prefer devastatingly sophisticated - but almost endearing is more than I could have hoped for under the circumstances.

Jane Costello

Costello's Quotes #1777434
#96. I would love to hang out with Elvis Costello, to see what he's up to because he seems so fascinating to me.

Patrick Stump

Costello's Quotes #1791771
#97. You swore you wouldn't shout. If it's not your punch, then it's your pout.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #1795961
#98. Although in Abbott and Costello, and straight man was first. That's a very interesting concept.

Harvey Korman

Costello's Quotes #1856844
#99. He's got a mind like a sewer and a heart like a fridge.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #1856967
#100. Happiness isn't a fortune in a cookie. It's deeper, wider, funnier, and more transporting than that.

Elvis Costello

Costello's Quotes #1876718

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