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My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant, someone who disrupts the daily drag of life just enough to leave the victim thinking there's maybe more to it all than the mere hum-drum quality of existence.

— Elvis Costello New Music Express interview with Nick Kent (1978)

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Life

More quotes by Elvis Costello

When the media attention switches away from this story onto the next thing that happens in the world, the circumstances will still be there.

WARNING: This album contains country & western music and may cause offence to narrow minded listeners.

Warning label on Almost Blue (1981)

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.

What shall we do, what shall we do with all this useless beauty?

You'll see me off in the distance, I hope
At the other end
At the other end of the telescope.

All Elvis Costello quotes →

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To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

Bertrand Russell Marriage and Morals (1929)

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

William James The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)

Reason is Life's sole arbiter, the magic Laby'rinth's single clue:
Worlds lie above, beyond its ken; what crosses it can ne'er be true.

Richard Francis Burton The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî (1870)

It is the law of life that if you are kind to someone you feel happy. If you are cruel you are unhappy. And if you hurt someone, you will be hurt back.

Cary Grant Love – That’s All Cary Grant Ever Thinks About (1964)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Elvis Costello (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.