You have to keep busy. After all, no dog’s ever pissed on a moving car.
TOM WAITSSlept all night in the cedar grove, I was born to ramble, born to rove, some men are searchin’ for the holy grail, but there ain’t nothin’ sweeter than ridin’ the rails.
More Tom Waits Quotes
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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 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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You got to tell me the brave captain Why are the wicked so strong? How do the angels get to sleep When the devil leaves the porch light on?
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I like my music with the rinds and the seeds and pulp left in.
TOM WAITS -
I don’t think that you should be perfectly candid and frank about the intimate details of your personal life with the public at large. Subsequently, it creates considerable personal problems.
TOM WAITS -
Well, it’s either kiss me or kill me, that’s how I see it.
TOM WAITS -
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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We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. We are monkeys with money and guns.
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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.
TOM WAITS -
You know, we just buy music now. We don’t make it any more. And that goes for just about everything. I think it’s so important that people develop and subscribe to and have confidence in their own ability to make music, however rough it is.
TOM WAITS -
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 put food on the table and roof overhead. But I’d trade it all tomorrow for the highway instead.
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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.
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Time is just memory Mixed in with Desire.
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New York forces you to be in endless surreal situations.
TOM WAITS






