Latest Tom Waits Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• In terms of black music - the only music that we can call our own, that was really born here - I don't think a lot has been done to chronicle the relations between American history and where black music fits in.

  Tom Waits

  Thinking, Black, Done

• Unfortunately, I made the mistake at one point of putting my address on the back of one of my albums, just to find out what would happen. I received a lot of disturbing mail and calls. Actually, I was living in a hotel, so it was easy enough to find the number. I got a kick out of it for a while. Then I realized what I'd done.

  Tom Waits

  Mistake, Done, Easy

• Francis Ford Coppola is completely unconventional. He has a strong sense of loyalty. Great eyes. It's a diabolical undertaking in terms of organization and leadership.

  Tom Waits

  Loyalty, Strong, Eye

• 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

  Thinking, Problem, Intimate

• I never looked at music as a serious ven­ture. There was very little encouragement from my family. I didn't have anybody to entertain, so it was hard to get motivated.

  Tom Waits

  Encouragement, Serious, My Family

• It wasn't good for my nerves, that kind of work - a fireman. I've got high blood pressure. I get upset easily. I don't think that was a proper career alternative for me.

  Tom Waits

  Thinking, Upset, Kind

• I was a fireman. I lived in the fire sta­tion for about a year. The pay wasn't so good. It was kind of like being in the army, or what I imagine that would be like.

  Tom Waits

  Army, Kind, Fireman

• Chevrolet was puzzled when they discovered that their sales for the Chevy Nova were off the charts everywhere but in Latin America. They finally realized that "Nova" in Spanish translates to "no go." Not the best name for a car... anywhere "no va."

  Tom Waits

  Latin, Names, America

  "Tom Waits Spills the Beans to Tom Waits". Interview with Joan Anderman, www.boston.com. May 22, 2008.

• Leona Helmsley's dog made $12 million last year... and Dean McLaine, a farmer in Ohio, made $30,000. It's just a gigantic version of the madness that grows in every one of our brains.

  Tom Waits

  Dog, Ohio, Years

  Source: www.npr.org

• 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

  Happiness, Confused, Knowledge

  Interview "All Songs Considered", NPR, May 20, 2008.

• 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

  Reality, Men, Imagination

  "Tom Waits Spills the Beans to Tom Waits". Interview with Joan Anderman, www.boston.com. May 22, 2008.

• That for me is more important than anything when you're in the studio - to have somebody you can trust and who knows you, knows who you are and doesn't let you get away with anything.

  Tom Waits

  Important, Get Away, Studios

  Source: stephenkpeeples.com

• I'm trying to learn how to write faster.

  Tom Waits

  Writing, Trying, Faster

  Source: stephenkpeeples.com

• 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

  People, Laughing, Funeral

  Source: blankonblank.org

• New York forces you to be in endless surreal situations.

  Tom Waits

  New York, Force, Endless

  Source: blankonblank.org

• I don't know what the 'big time' is.

  Tom Waits

  Bigs, Knows

  Source: blankonblank.org

• I was always laughing in church.

  Tom Waits

  Laughing, Church, Always Laughing

  Source: blankonblank.org

• You just write and you don't try to make sense of it. You just put it down the way you got it.

  Tom Waits

  Writing, Trying, Way

  Source: blankonblank.org

• There's a beauty of show business. It's the only business you can have a career in when you're dead.

  Tom Waits

  Careers, Shows, Show Business

  Source: tomwaitsfan.com

• The first time I started listening to Irish music, I had a very strong connection. Strangely enough, there's a great many Japanese melodies and vocal styles that sound very much like Hungarian music. You start seeing all these cross-references and comparative, independent musical cultures.

  Tom Waits

  Strong, Independent, Style

  Source: tomwaitsfan.com

• Most changes in music, most exciting things that happen in music, occur through a miscommunication between people "I thought you said this." Poetry comes out of that too.

  Tom Waits

  People, Miscommunication, Said

  Source: tomwaitsfan.com

• I'm trying to get music ideas that come and keep them alive. It's like carrying water in your hands. I want to keep it all, and sometimes by the time you get to the studio you have nothing.

  Tom Waits

  Hands, Ideas, Water

  Source: tomwaitsfan.com

• I think some bands thrive on the idea of changing instruments. When they're off their real instrument, the ability to go very far from the original idea is reduced.

  Tom Waits

  Real, Thinking, Ideas

  Source: tomwaitsfan.com

• I can't listen to so much music at the same time. I think you really have to have a diet. You're just processing too much, there's no place to put it. If you go a long time without hearing music, then you hear music that nobody else hears.

  Tom Waits

  Thinking, Long, Too Much

  Source: tomwaitsfan.com

• I like writing melody without an instrument. It's just so - it's more like the choreography of a bee; you just go.

  Tom Waits

  Writing, Bees, Instruments

  "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. October 31, 2011.