We make the oldest stories new when we succeed, and we are trapped by the old stories when we fail

You're going to react to a painting in a way that the painting demands you react.

Elvis' early music has drama because as he sang he was escaping limits.

We make the oldest stories new when we succeed, and we are trapped by the old stories when we fail

I was the first records editor at Rolling Stone, and there were no rules. There was nothing to fall back on as to how do you write about this kind of music, so people were trying absolutely everything with a great sense of freedom and experimentation and success and failure, and a feeling of, “My God, people are actually paying attention to this. Let’s pretend they aren’t because we don’t want to be intimidated by what somebody might think of what we’re saying.

I had tremendous fun fooling around with the way people talked about songs, just the way that became another way of understanding the world.

Elvis transcends his talent to the point of dispensing with it altogether.