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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

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.
TOM WAITS

Adventure Call Improvisation Myself Poet
I’ll take a rusty nail and scratch your initials on my arm.
TOM WAITS

Initial Myself Scratch
The trick is to have a career and have a family. It’s like having two dogs that hate each other and you have to take them for a walk every night.
TOM WAITS

Career Family Night Trick Yourself
Come down off the cross, we could use the wood.
TOM WAITS

Cross Wood
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
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

Market Myself Nervous Open People See Yourself
A mental midget with the IQ of a fence post.
TOM WAITS

Dumb Intelligence Mental
Well I got a bad liver and broken heart, yeah, I drunk me a river since you tore me apart.
TOM WAITS

Bad Body Drink Heart Myself
I’m always looking for sounds that are pleasing at the time. The sound of a helicopter is really annoying until you’re drowning, and it’s there to rescue you. Then it sounds like music.
TOM WAITS

Drowning Music Rescue Sound Time Yourself
I don’t have a drinking problem ‘Cept when I can’t get a drink.
TOM WAITS

Drink Myself Problem
You know, we just buy music now. We don’t make it any more. And that goes for just about everything. I think it’s so important that people develop and subscribe to and have confidence in their own ability to make music, however rough it is.
TOM WAITS

Ability Confidence Important Music Rough Thinking Yourself
You have to keep busy. After all, no dog’s ever pissed on a moving car.
TOM WAITS

Busy Car Dog Move Yourself
I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.
TOM WAITS

Beautiful Melody Myself Terrible
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 WAITS

Brave Conjuring Invitation Room Writing Yourself
We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness.
TOM WAITS

Abundance Bury Happiness Information Quantity Wealth Weight
For 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.
TOM WAITS

Learning Listening Oneself Song Wonder Writing

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.

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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.

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Popular Authors

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