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The trick is to have a career and have a family. It’s like having two dogs that hate each other and you have to take them for a walk every night.

Tom Waits

Don’t you know there ain’t no devil, it’s just god when he’s drunk.
TOM WAITS

Devil Drink God Himself Known
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.
TOM WAITS

Application Fill Myself Sex Start Writing
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

Ability Confidence Important Music Rough Thinking Yourself
It’s rather mystifying when you think about writing songs – where they come from, and how they’re born.
TOM WAITS

Born Mysterious Thinking Writing Yourself
My wife called me a mule. She once said, “I didn’t marry a man; I married a mule!” I kept thinking about it. It was in the back of my head. I think it makes a good title for an album.
TOM WAITS

Animal Goodness Man Marriage Myself Thinking Wife
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

Detail Intimate Myself Perfection Problem Thinking
If there’s one thing you can say about mankind, there’s nothing kind about man.
TOM WAITS

Cruelty Kind Man Oneself
We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness.
TOM WAITS

Abundance Bury Happiness Information Quantity Wealth Weight
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

Listening Music Mysekf Place Procession Time
A gentleman is someone who can play the accordion, but doesn’t.
TOM WAITS

Gentle Man Play
I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.
TOM WAITS

Beautiful Melody Myself Terrible
Slept 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.
TOM WAITS

Born Myself Night Search Sleep Sweet
I sold a quart of blood and bought a half a pint of scotch.
TOM WAITS

Alcohol Blood Myself
I started out with nothing and I still got most of it left.
TOM WAITS

Inspirational Myself Poor Reach Start
I’ve lost my equilibrium, my car keys, and my pride.
TOM WAITS

Balance Car Myself Pride
I’m just trying to make a buck like everyone else.
TOM WAITS

Money Myself
The beginning of it starts at the end.
TOM WAITS

Beginning End Start
Writing songs is like capturing birds without killing them. Sometimes you end up with nothing but a mouthful of feathers.
TOM WAITS

Capture End Feature Song Writing
Songs are really just very interesting things to be doing with the air.
TOM WAITS

Air Interest Song
The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering.
TOM WAITS

Bad Destroy Hell Ourselves Place Suffering World Writing
There’s no prayer like desire.
TOM WAITS

Desire One Liner Prayer
The blues is like a planet. It’s an enormous topic. You can’t ignore the impact that it has had and continues to have on the whole musical culture. It’s a tree that everyone is swinging from. Without it, I don’t know where I would be. It’s indelible and indispensable.
TOM WAITS

Culture Known Music Myself Planet Topic
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 WAITS

Fingers Freedom Instrument Myself Vocal Word
Got a head full of lightning, a hat full of rain.
TOM WAITS

Head Rain
I did my time in the jail of your arms.
TOM WAITS

Arms Time Yourself
You learn as much from your kids as they learn from you.
TOM WAITS

Children Learning Yourself
I’m not fighting for justice. I am not fighting for freedom. I am fighting for my life and another day in the world here.
TOM WAITS

Fight Justice Myself World

The trick is to have a career and have a family. It’s like having two dogs that hate each other and you have to take them for a walk every night.

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The trick is to have a career and have a family. It’s like having two dogs that hate each other and you have to take them for a walk every night.

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Popular Authors

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