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.
TOM WAITSI always liked the idea that America is a big facade. We are all insects crawling across on the shiny hood of a Cadillac. We’re all looking at the wrapping. But we won’t tear the wrapping to see what lies beneath.
More Tom Waits Quotes
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If people are a little nervous about approaching you at the market, it’s good. I’m not Chuckles The Clown. Or Bozo. I don’t cut the ribbon at the opening of markets. I don’t stand next to the mayor. Hit your baseball into my yard, and you’ll never see it again.
TOM WAITS -
Time is just memory Mixed in with Desire.
TOM WAITS -
I’ve seen it all through the yellow windows of the evening train.
TOM WAITS -
When I was younger, I wanted to be older. Now I am older, I am not quite so sure.
TOM WAITS -
You’re my North Star when I’m lost and feeling blue.
TOM WAITS -
I can’t listen to so much music at the same time. I think you really have to have a diet. You’re just processing too much, there’s no place to put it. If you go a long time without hearing music, then you hear music that nobody else hears.
TOM WAITS -
I never told the truth so i can never tell a lie.
TOM WAITS -
Living with kids is like living with a bunch of drunks. You know you really have to be on your toes all the time. Things are falling over and breaking and spilling. If you live on the second story, you really have to keep the windows shut all the time.
TOM WAITS -
I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.
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’ve lost my equilibrium, my car keys, and my pride.
TOM WAITS -
All the donuts have names that sound like prostitutes
TOM WAITS -
I like Thelonious Monk, he’s so gnarled, he’s like a piece of machinery that’s pulled up the bolts on the floor and gone off on its own.
TOM WAITS -
Got a head full of lightning, a hat full of rain.
TOM WAITS -
Songs are really just very interesting things to be doing with the air.
TOM WAITS