Elvis Costello Quotes

I can't read or write music. When I want to remember something, I try to remember all the keys on the piano. Which is what I still do. I put the numbers on the keys. And that's got to become music again.

I can play the guitar and the keys and the drums. I'm not brilliant at any of them. I can sing too. Some of my friends are proper musicians but I'm a song-writer. I write songs.

It would be fun to write with Adele, actually. She seems like a fun girl to write with.

I always loved singing and writing poetry. I always loved music, and I've loved writing my whole life. When I put them together, it was probably in my early 20s where I put words to music for the first time.

I wrote my first song when I was six or seven, a silly little song. But I used to write poems in high school - not songs.

I wanted to play piano, and that slid quickly into writing - it wasn't enough to play other people's notes: I had to write notes too.

In order to play and write, it's unique - you either do one or the other.

I'm usually writing in English, and then I'll get the hankering to change channels. And usually I'll do that when I want to try a whole new set of keys, like musical keys.

I write and record all the time; it's my hobby and my passion.

So, for instance, if you came to me, I'd ask, 'Do you want to write? Do you want to improvise? Why do you want to play this instrument? What do you want to do?'

I started playing guitar when I was 13. I'd written a few songs on the guitar over some time. I'd written a book of poetry, and I got a book of lyrics that I had when I was a kid.

It would actually feel forced or unnatural to try to do a different singing style or to try to change my sound completely.

I know that composers know my voice type and what songs will suit me. I have been able to mould my voice according to the nature of the song given to me, be it rock, pop or jazz.

My muse has always been the piano.

I always wrote songs. Elementary school, middle school. It didn't feel more creative than speaking. It was just normal to do that.

What I can feel the most and what I can remember the most are the melodies I want to write to.

I realized that music was the only thing I really thought about - music and writing.

When I'm writing, I'm focusing more on just the basic melody and the lyrics.

I was able to apply ukulele to whatever I'm trying to write. It's become part of songwriting for me, the knowledge I gained from hearing the melodies come out, and then applying that to guitar or vocals.

If you have words and want to write music for them, the words hit you with a feeling which you can't really describe in words, and so what you do is to put music to them and in this way you make contact with the words, through the musical thing. It happens when two feelings come together and they do something together and they compliment each other.

I am devoting some time to music. I'm finding a balance in my life right now so that when I'm not acting I'm really working on the music side of things... producing and writing and recording and also getting to do some live shows. It's a really exciting thing.

It is just that heavy metal musicians write in minor keys, and when you do that, you frighten people.

I've been writing songs since I was like six or seven. I've been writing poetry and short stories and stuff, but my first serious, serious song, I wrote when I was fourteen.

What I hope is to really focus on being a songwriter. I'd love to write songs for other people; that's something I'd really like to start doing.

The reason you write [songs] is because there's something you want to say that is important to you - enough to go through all the torture of writing.