"I'm not like you were. I never was alive to begin with." Tamaki was a person who died and then became a ghost (but then became a person? Cole's got vague brushstrokes about Portland but vague brushstrokes will suffice). Cole was a spirit who thought he was a person. At least in Cole's mind, they're two completely different things.

"It makes you happy so it makes me happy." It's as simple as that.