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 WAITSFor a songwriter, you don’t really go to songwriting school; you learn by listening to tunes. And you try to understand them and take them apart and see what they’re made of, and wonder if you can make one, too.
More Tom Waits Quotes
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I don’t have a drinking problem ‘Cept when I can’t get a drink.
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But it’s so hard to dance that way when it’s cold and there’s no music.
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I guess I’ve always lived upside down when I want things I can’t have.
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You can drive out nature with a pitch fork But it always comes roaring back again.
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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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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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She’s got the whole dark forest living inside of her.
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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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I’ve been riding on the crest of a slump lately.
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I’ve seen it all through the yellow windows of the evening train.
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Don’t plant your days they turn into weeds.
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You learn as much from your kids as they learn from you.
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I don’t like hearing Beatles songs in commercials. It almost renders them useless. I think, ‘Oh God, another one bites the dust.’
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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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The devil knows the Bible like the back of his hand.
TOM WAITS