Elvis Costello Quotes

One doesn't want one's identity coerced.

If my life choices had to be predicated based on what was expected of me from a community on either side, that's going to make me feel really straitjacketed, and I don't want to feel that.

Either you think, or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.

I'm not going to be intimidated by people or identity politics. I think that's a dead end.

So I'd much rather get across the concept of freedom. It's what's important to Indian children. The only way you can be free is to know is that you are worthwhile as a distinct human being. Otherwise you become what the colonizers have designed, and that is a lemming. Get in line, punch all the right keys, and die.

Imitation is very easy, and the whole culture and society depends on imitation. Everybody is telling you how to behave, and whatsoever they are teaching you is nothing but imitation. Religious people - the so-called religious people, the priests, the theologians - they are also teaching you, 'Be like Jesus, be like Buddha, be like Krishna.' Nobody ever tells you, 'Just be yourself' - nobody. Everybody is against you, it seems. Nobody allows you to be yourself, nobody gives you any freedom. You can be in this world, but you must imitate somebody.

the world loves stupid labels. i wish we got to choose our own.

A self-respecting man is a man without a country. A fatherland is birdlime.

When a man is born...there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets.

Fashion is an imposition, a reign on freedom.

I've always done everything at my disposal to avoid labeling what I do, or to avoid being labeled myself.

I just don't conform very well.

I don't like the trappings of stardom. I wear the shoes and the Dolce & Gabbana, because I'm told to. But I'm not trapped by it.

At which point should we let go and do what we want to do, and when should we submit to rules? Coming to terms with our true natures and who we really are has always been a fascination to humans. I know it fascinates me.

We all want to be famous people, and the moment we want to be something we are no longer free.

Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called and whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men.

I have an aversion to being mislabeled. Here's a label I'd accept: I'm an 'individual.' I'm someone who can't follow, and doesn't want to lead.

If you deny people their own voice, you'll have no idea of who they were.

We have to wake up. We have to refuse to be a clone.

In the age of the individual's liquidation, the question of individuality must be raised anew.

I know that many people kill off their real personality just to fit into this society, but why do we have to compromise? I never understood that. I decided to try to be myself and to live by my own values rather than those of others.

I don't just want to be another cog in the gears of Hollywood.

I try to not focus on what people expect from me.

If you want to do what you want to do, you have to look a certain way.

I wish I didn't have to live up to anything.