Arithmetic arithmetock Turn the hands back on the clock How does the ocean rock the boat? How did the razor find my throat? The only strings that hold me here Are tangled up around the pier.
TOM WAITSNew York forces you to be in endless surreal situations.
More Tom Waits Quotes
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Songs are really just very interesting things to be doing with the air.
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I sold a quart of blood and bought a half a pint of scotch.
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All that you’ve loved is all you own.
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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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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.
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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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Come down off the cross, we could use the wood.
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There’s always free cheddar in the mousetrap, baby.
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A gentleman is someone who can play the accordion, but doesn’t.
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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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The piano has been drinking, not me.
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Well you say that it’s gospel, But I know that it’s only church.
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Most of the things you absorb you will ultimately secrete.
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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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Got a head full of lightning, a hat full of rain.
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I’ll take a rusty nail and scratch your initials on my arm.
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There’s no prayer like desire.
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If there’s one thing you can say about mankind, there’s nothing kind about man.
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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.
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People get frightened that success is going to take them out of life. They’re no longer going to be on the corner of Bedlam and Squalor; life will only be something you can get through the mail.
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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.
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New York forces you to be in endless surreal situations.
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The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering.
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Sing me a rainbow. Steal me a dream.
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Did the devil make the world while God was sleeping?
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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