The Zen Of Elvis Costello

[SimonDoom]

Elvis Costello's song (Angels Want To Wear My) Red Shoes, from his first album My Aim Is True, has this immortal line:

I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused.

I've always considered that a pretty good life philosophy, which applies in many situations. It's kind of a punk version of the Serenity Prayer. It's especially helpful in a forum like this one where every once in while one has to deal with intemperate remarks from readers or even fellow authors. If you can find amusement in the yuckiness, I reckon you can have more fun and experience less distress in your writing life.

Anybody else have quotes from songs, or poems, or stories that they find amusing or wise in a similar way?

 

[StillStunned]

"Dignity", by Deacon Blue, works on at least three different levels, all of them about how the opinions of other people don't matter if they don't know the full story.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

The last line of 'Glory Road' by Neil Diamond telling the story about searching for the meaning of life:

Rest my load,
Now I know,
glory road
won't set me free

 

[vagrantx]

Anybody else have quotes from songs, or poems, or stories that they find amusing or wise in a similar way?

I always loved Your Latest Trick by Dire Straits. About a femme fatale, luring men in and screwing them over then disappearing before they realise what happened. Knopfler paints such a vivid picture of the hopelessness felt when the pain from the dagger in your back hits you.

And we're standing outside of this wonderland
Looking so bereaved and so bereft
Like a bowery bum when he finally understands
The bottle's empty and there's nothing left

 

[Bramblethorn]

No time for fear, just for love
The sky the deepest red
The sun the bleakest black
Each second's ours to share
So make them last
Now welcome dear apocalypse!
We dance in raining stars...

- Lord of the Lost, Raining Stars. It's about seeking beauty in the face of death: when you can't stop the sky from falling, you might as well enjoy the show. I've never been sure whether the "dear" refers to the listener or the apocalypse; maybe both.

It never happened, and yet it is true!

- Neil Gaiman's "Sandman". (May not be accurate, quoting from memory.) The idea that even when the events of a story are fictional, it can contain deeper truths. Probably influenced by Chesterton's comment about fairy tales.

In a similar vein:

HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.

- Terry Pratchett, "Hogfather".

 

[intim8]

Anybody else have quotes from songs, or poems, or stories that they find amusing or wise in a similar way?

"Two men say they're Jesus, one of 'em must be wrong"

"Marryin' money is a full time job, I don't need the aggravation, I'm a lazy slob."

 

[Djmac1031]

Anybody else have quotes from songs, or poems, or stories that they find amusing or wise in a similar way?

"I believe I've passed the age
of consciousness and righteous rage,
I found that just surviving was a noble fight.
I once believed in causes too,
I had my pointless point of view,
And life went on no matter who was wrong or right..."

Billy Joel: "Angry Young Man."

 

[AchtungNight]

“Grenade” by Bruno Mars and “Oh Lamour” by Erasure resonate with me. I’ve been in relationships similar to those the songs describe.

 

[ElectricBlue]

"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.”

Leonard Cohen

 

[TheRedChamber]

"So you can make me cum, that doesn't make you Jesus."
- Tori Amos

 

[Bramblethorn]

"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.”

Leonard Cohen

Echoing Rumi: "The wound is the place where the Light enters you."

 

[yowser]

If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all.