And the earth died screaming, while I lay dreaming.
TOM WAITSMostly 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.
More Tom Waits Quotes
-
-
They say that I have no hits and that I’m difficult to work with. And they say that like it’s a bad thing.
TOM WAITS -
Most of the things you absorb you will ultimately secrete.
TOM WAITS -
I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.
TOM WAITS -
We have a deficit of wonder right now.
TOM WAITS -
I’m the type of guy who’d sell you a rat’s asshole for a wedding ring.
TOM WAITS -
The big print giveth and the small print taketh away.
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.
TOM WAITS -
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.
TOM WAITS -
I don’t like hearing Beatles songs in commercials. It almost renders them useless. I think, ‘Oh God, another one bites the dust.’
TOM WAITS -
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 -
The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering.
TOM WAITS -
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 -
If people are a little nervous about approaching you at the market, it’s good. I’m not Chuckles The Clown. Or Bozo. I don’t cut the ribbon at the opening of markets. I don’t stand next to the mayor. Hit your baseball into my yard, and you’ll never see it again.
TOM WAITS -
If there’s one thing you can say about mankind, there’s nothing kind about man.
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