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 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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I sold a quart of blood and bought a half a pint of scotch.
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 never told the truth so i can never tell a lie.
TOM WAITS -
But then I’m one of those guys that is still a bit afraid of the telephone, its implications for conversation. I still wonder if the jukebox might be the death of live music.
TOM WAITS -
Mostly I straddle reality and the imagination. My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane.
TOM WAITS -
I made a wish on a sliver of moonlight A sly grin and a bowl full of stars.
TOM WAITS -
The dog won’t bite if you beat Him with a bone.
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 -
The devil knows the Bible like the back of his hand.
TOM WAITS -
Oh, I’m not a percussionist, I just like to hit things.
TOM WAITS -
Well you say that it’s gospel, But I know that it’s only church.
TOM WAITS -
I’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.
TOM WAITS -
I did my time in the jail of your arms.
TOM WAITS -
We have a deficit of wonder right now.
TOM WAITS -
New York forces you to be in endless surreal situations.
TOM WAITS