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 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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Oh, I’m not a percussionist, I just like to hit things.
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There’s a beauty of show business. It’s the only business you can have a career in when you’re dead.
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I don’t have a drinking problem ‘Cept when I can’t get a drink.
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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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We are all just monkeys with money and guns.
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She’s got the whole dark forest living inside of her.
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If I exorcise my devils, all my angels may go, too.
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A mental midget with the IQ of a fence post.
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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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There’s no prayer like desire.
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You can drive out nature with a pitch fork But it always comes roaring back again.
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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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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 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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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