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We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. We are monkeys with money and guns.

Tom Waits

A gentleman is someone who can play the accordion, but doesn’t.
TOM WAITS

Gentle Man Play
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.
TOM WAITS

Blind Imagination Myself Need Reality Requirement
I never told the truth so i can never tell a lie.
TOM WAITS

Lying Myself Talk Truth
I hate Disneyland. It primes our kids for Las Vegas.
TOM WAITS

Hate Myself Prime
If you get far enough away you’ll be on your way back home.
TOM WAITS

Enough Far Home Yourself
I guess I’ve always lived upside down when I want things I can’t have.
TOM WAITS

Live Myself
Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends.
TOM WAITS

Friendship Pain Reality
I’m just trying to make a buck like everyone else.
TOM WAITS

Money Myself
it ain’t no sin, to take off your skin and dance around in your bones
TOM WAITS

Bone Dance Sin Skin Yourself
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.
TOM WAITS

Afraid Conversation Death Live Music Telephone
I like turning on two radios at once. I like hearing things wrong. I get a lot of ideas by mishearing things.
TOM WAITS

Hear Ideas Myself Wrong
You can drive out nature with a pitch fork But it always comes roaring back again.
TOM WAITS

Drive Nature Roar Yourself
Not the kind of wheel you fall asleep at.
TOM WAITS

Fall Kind Yourself
I always had a great appreciation for jazz, but I’m a very pedestrian musician. I get by. I like to think that my main instrument is vocabulary.
TOM WAITS

Appreciation Greatness Music Myself Vocabulary
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.
TOM WAITS

Inspirational Money Musician Need Play Stage Wallet Yourself
I have an audio stigmatism whereby I hear things wrong – I have audio illusions.
TOM WAITS

Audio Illusion Myself Sick Wrong
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
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
I do some acting. And there’s a difference between “I do some acting” and “I’m an actor.”
TOM WAITS

Act Actor Difference Myself
The way you do anything is the way you do everything.
TOM WAITS

Action Style Way Yourself
I’ll tell you all my secrets but I lie about my past.
TOM WAITS

Lying Myself Past Secret
The big print giveth and the small print taketh away.
TOM WAITS

Away Big Small
You’re my North Star when I’m lost and feeling blue.
TOM WAITS

Love Relationship Romantic Star Yourself
You have to keep busy. After all, no dog’s ever pissed on a moving car.
TOM WAITS

Busy Car Dog Move Yourself
Bill Hicks – blowtorch, excavator, truthsayer, and brain specialist. He will correct your vision. Others will drive on the road he built.
TOM WAITS

Brain Built Drive Himself Road Specialist Vision Willing
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

Break Children Fall Live Time Window Yourself
I admit that I ain’t no angel, I admit that I ain’t no saint – I’m selfish and I’m cruel and I’m blind. If I exorcise my devils, well my angels may leave too. When they leave they’re so hard to find.
TOM WAITS

Angel Blind Finding Hard Myself Selfish

We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. We are monkeys with money and guns.

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We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. We are monkeys with money and guns.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Tom Waits Quotes