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 WAITSThe beginning of it starts at the end.
More Tom Waits Quotes
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I do some acting. And there’s a difference between “I do some acting” and “I’m an actor.”
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I’ve lost my equilibrium, my car keys, and my pride.
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I put food on the table and roof overhead. But I’d trade it all tomorrow for the highway instead.
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I like my music with the rinds and the seeds and pulp left in.
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Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends.
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I’ve been riding on the crest of a slump lately.
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The fact is most of the things that people know about me are made up. My own life is backstage. So what you “know” about me is only what I allowed you to know about me.
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Sing me a rainbow. Steal me a dream.
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The folks who know the truth aren’t talking. The ones who don’t have a clue, you can’t shut them up!
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If I exorcise my devils, all my angels may go, too.
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I like turning on two radios at once. I like hearing things wrong. I get a lot of ideas by mishearing things.
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The ocean doesn’t want me today, But I’ll come back tomorrow to play. The riptide is waging And the life guard’s away But the ocean doesn’t want me today.
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New York forces you to be in endless surreal situations.
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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.
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Children make up the best songs, anyway. Better than grown-ups. Kids are always working on songs and throwing them away, like little origami things or paper airplanes. They don’t care if they lose it; they’ll just make another one.
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I have an audio stigmatism whereby I hear things wrong – I have audio illusions.
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Most people don’t care if you’re telling them the truth or if you’re telling them a lie, as long as they’re entertained by it.
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It’s very hard to stop doing things you’re used to doing. You almost have to dismantle yourself and scatter it all around and then put a blindfold on and put it back together so that you avoid old habits.
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I don’t like hearing Beatles songs in commercials. It almost renders them useless. I think, ‘Oh God, another one bites the dust.’
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Well, it’s either kiss me or kill me, that’s how I see it.
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A mental midget with the IQ of a fence post.
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I guess I’ve always lived upside down when I want things I can’t have.
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I dunno when I started writing really. I was, like, filling out applications and stuff real early. Last name first, first name last, sex. ‘occasionally’ , stuff like that. Then I was writing letters, filling out forms, writing on bathroom walls.
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I started out with nothing and I still got most of it left.
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The dog won’t bite if you beat Him with a bone.
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I’m always looking for sounds that are pleasing at the time. The sound of a helicopter is really annoying until you’re drowning, and it’s there to rescue you. Then it sounds like music.
TOM WAITS