Elvis Costello on writing songs for posterity, 2009

JPR Do you aspire for your songs to have a life beyond your performance of them?

COSTELLO Not in every case, because sometimes songs are very particular to your own experience, and it’s hard to imagine even somebody else understanding them. That doesn’t make it wrong to write them, because you hope to place within them something that people recognize. But somebody who has the ambition to make songs universal uses language which is universal, and I don’t. There’s a very, very thin line between universal and cliché, as well, so you try to avoid that.

I write for other people sometimes. But my first thought is not, “Will this song go down into history?” anymore than I care a damn what posterity says about me. I have no concern for my reputation when I’m gone from this place. I mean if they’ll sing my songs and think fondly of me that I did anything good in this world, that’s fine, but I’m not writing to be remembered. I’m writing because I want to write, and I play because that’s what I do. If people get pleasure from it or anything from it at all, then I suppose I must have done something correctly in following my instincts or curiosity or even, as much to say, talents. But I’m not thinking about people kind of gabbing around and giving a brass plaque. That would be a wrong thing to do when you are writing.

From a cover story for Acoustic Guitar, August 2009. Read the full article, plus bonus interview material that didn't appear in the print edition, here.