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.
TOM WAITSThe dog won’t bite if you beat Him with a bone.
More Tom Waits Quotes
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The way you do anything is the way you do everything.
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I’ve been riding on the crest of a slump lately.
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It’s rather mystifying when you think about writing songs – where they come from, and how they’re born.
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New York forces you to be in endless surreal situations.
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Break windows, smoke cigars, and stay up late. Tell ’em to do that, they’ll find a little pot of gold.
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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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There’s nothing that makes me laugh more than being in the situation where you’re not supposed to laugh. Funerals. People crying. Breaking down. Telling you their life. I’m the worst. I’m the worst at that.
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And the earth died screaming, while I lay dreaming.
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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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When I was younger, I wanted to be older. Now I am older, I am not quite so sure.
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I don’t go to church on Sunday, don’t get on my knees to pray, or memorize the books of the Bible, I got my own special way
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I’m the type of guy who’d sell you a rat’s asshole for a wedding ring.
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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.
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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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Oh, I’m not a percussionist, I just like to hit things.
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Not the kind of wheel you fall asleep at.
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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.
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I’m just trying to make a buck like everyone else.
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I don’t have a drinking problem ‘Cept when I can’t get a drink.
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I’d rather have a free bottle in front of me than a prefrontal lobotomy.
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I think all songs should have weather in them. Names of towns and streets, and they should have a couple of sailors. I think those are just song prerequisites.
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The big print giveth and the small print taketh away.
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You learn as much from your kids as they learn from you.
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You have to keep busy. After all, no dog’s ever pissed on a moving car.
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The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering.
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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