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Most people don’t care if you’re telling them the truth or if you’re telling them a lie, as long as they’re entertained by it.

Tom Waits

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
I did my time in the jail of your arms.
TOM WAITS

Arms Time Yourself
I put food on the table and roof overhead. But I’d trade it all tomorrow for the highway instead.
TOM WAITS

Food High Myself Table Trade
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 WAITS

Arithmetic Boat Finding Hands Hold Myself Ocean
You can drive out nature with a pitch fork But it always comes roaring back again.
TOM WAITS

Drive Nature Roar Yourself
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
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
I 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.
TOM WAITS

Ideas Insect Lying Myself See
Don’t you know there ain’t no devil, it’s just god when he’s drunk.
TOM WAITS

Devil Drink God Himself Known
But it’s so hard to dance that way when it’s cold and there’s no music.
TOM WAITS

Cold Dance Hard Music Way
All the donuts have names that sound like prostitutes
TOM WAITS

Donut Name Prostitute Sound
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

Commercial Oneself Song
Don’t plant your days they turn into weeds.
TOM WAITS

Day Plant Yourself
Did the devil make the world while God was sleeping?
TOM WAITS

Devil God Sleep World
When I was younger, I wanted to be older. Now I am older, I am not quite so sure.
TOM WAITS

Age Myself Old Quite Young
New York forces you to be in endless surreal situations.
TOM WAITS

End Force Surreal Yourself
I always thought songs are movies for the ears and films are like songs for the eyes.
TOM WAITS

Eyes Movie Song Thinking
I hate Disneyland. It primes our kids for Las Vegas.
TOM WAITS

Hate Myself Prime
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
You can learn a lot about a woman by getting smashed with her.
TOM WAITS

Herself Learning Woman
I like my music with the rinds and the seeds and pulp left in.
TOM WAITS

Music Myself Song Wind
I guess I’ve always lived upside down when I want things I can’t have.
TOM WAITS

Live Myself
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.
TOM WAITS

Couple Myself Song Thinking Weather
And the earth died screaming, while I lay dreaming.
TOM WAITS

Death Earth Myself Scream
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

Break Cry Hard Time Laughter Life People Situation Worst Yourself
The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering.
TOM WAITS

Bad Destroy Hell Ourselves Place Suffering World Writing
Break windows, smoke cigars, and stay up late. Tell ’em to do that, they’ll find a little pot of gold.
TOM WAITS

Break Finding Stay Window

Most people don’t care if you’re telling them the truth or if you’re telling them a lie, as long as they’re entertained by it.

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Most people don’t care if you’re telling them the truth or if you’re telling them a lie, as long as they’re entertained by it.

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Popular Authors

More Tom Waits Quotes