When you’re writing‚ you’re conjuring. It’s a ritual‚ and you need to be brave and respectful and sometimes get out of the way of whatever it is that you’re inviting into the room.
TOM WAITSWell I got a bad liver and broken heart, yeah, I drunk me a river since you tore me apart.
More Tom Waits Quotes
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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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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 always thought songs are movies for the ears and films are like songs for the eyes.
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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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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’ve seen it all through the yellow windows of the evening train.
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Well I got a bad liver and broken heart, yeah, I drunk me a river since you tore me apart.
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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.
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I did my time in the jail of your arms.
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I don’t like the stigma that comes with being called a poet. So I call what I’m doing an improvisational adventure or an inebriational travelogue.
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The ocean doesn’t want me today, But I’ll come back tomorrow to play. The riptide is waging And the life guard’s away But the ocean doesn’t want me today.
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Well, it’s either kiss me or kill me, that’s how I see it.
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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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Sing me a rainbow. Steal me a dream.
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Well you say that it’s gospel, But I know that it’s only church.
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The folks who know the truth aren’t talking. The ones who don’t have a clue, you can’t shut them up!
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I like Thelonious Monk, he’s so gnarled, he’s like a piece of machinery that’s pulled up the bolts on the floor and gone off on its own.
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There’s no prayer like desire.
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I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.
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A gentleman is someone who can play the accordion, but doesn’t.
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The average person spends two weeks over their lifetime waiting for the traffic light to change.
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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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She’s got the whole dark forest living inside of her.
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Never trust a man in a blue trench coat, never drive a car when you’re dead.
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All the donuts have names that sound like prostitutes
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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