I like vocal word stuff. But I don’t always write with an instrument, I usually write a capella. It’s more like drawing in the air with your fingers. It’s closest to the choreography of a bee. You’re freer.
TOM WAITSI’m trying to get music ideas that come and keep them alive. It’s like carrying water in your hands. I want to keep it all, and sometimes by the time you get to the studio you have nothing.
More Tom Waits Quotes
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I like my music with the rinds and the seeds and pulp left in.
TOM WAITS -
I’m just trying to make a buck like everyone else.
TOM WAITS -
People get frightened that success is going to take them out of life. They’re no longer going to be on the corner of Bedlam and Squalor; life will only be something you can get through the mail.
TOM WAITS -
Never have your wallet with you onstage. It’s bad luck. You shouldn’t play the piano with money in your pocket. Play like you need the money.
TOM WAITS -
Their memory’s like a train: you can see it getting smaller as it pulls away And the things you can’t remember Tell the things you can’t forget that History puts a saint in every dream.
TOM WAITS -
Well you say that it’s gospel, But I know that it’s only church.
TOM WAITS -
I guess I’ve always lived upside down when I want things I can’t have.
TOM WAITS -
For a songwriter, you don’t really go to songwriting school; you learn by listening to tunes. And you try to understand them and take them apart and see what they’re made of, and wonder if you can make one, too.
TOM WAITS -
I admit that I ain’t no angel, I admit that I ain’t no saint – I’m selfish and I’m cruel and I’m blind. If I exorcise my devils, well my angels may leave too. When they leave they’re so hard to find.
TOM WAITS -
it ain’t no sin, to take off your skin and dance around in your bones
TOM WAITS -
Well I got a bad liver and broken heart, yeah, I drunk me a river since you tore me apart.
TOM WAITS -
You’re my North Star when I’m lost and feeling blue.
TOM WAITS -
When you’re writing‚ you’re conjuring. It’s a ritual‚ and you need to be brave and respectful and sometimes get out of the way of whatever it is that you’re inviting into the room.
TOM WAITS -
The Universe is making music all the time.
TOM WAITS -
I did my time in the jail of your arms.
TOM WAITS