Tom Waits Quotes - Page 8

Quotes about:

• Misery is the River of the World

  Tom Waits

  Rivers, World, Misery

  Song: Misery Is the River of the World, Album: Blood Money, 2002

  5 Copy quote

• All medical procedures require two hands, so in a sense it's like when you play an instrument. That's what they call things that they use in their work: They call them instruments. A lot of people start out majoring in medicine and drop it and change their major to music.

  Tom Waits

  Medicine, Hands, Play

  Source: www.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• Are you still jumping out of windows in expensive clothes?

  Tom Waits

  Clothes, Jumping, Window

  Song: Who Are You, Album: Bone Machine

  4 Copy quote

• You almost have to create situations in order to write about them, so I live in a constant state of self-imposed poverty. I don't want to live any other way.

  Tom Waits

  Writing, Self, Order

  "Tom Waits: 'I'm a night-owl reporter' - a classic interview from the vaults". Interview with Richard Cromelin, www.theguardian.com. August 7, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

• I'm reliable sources, I'll tell ya anything you want me to know.

  Tom Waits

  Want, Source, Knows

  5 Copy quote

• Popular music is like a big party, and it’s a thrill sneaking in rather than being invited. Every once in a while, a guy with his shirt on inside out, wearing lipstick and a pillbox hat gets a chance to speak.

  Tom Waits

  Party, Guy, Thrill

  "The inspirational Mr Tom Waits". Interview with Steve Oney, www.telegraph.co.uk. January 14, 2006.

  4 Copy quote

• Songs really are like a form of time travel because they really have moved forward in a bubble. Everyone who's connected with it, the studio's gone, the musicians are gone, and the only thing that's left is this recording which was only about a three-minute period maybe 70 years ago.

  Tom Waits

  Song, Years, Musician

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• It's hard to win when you always lose.

  Tom Waits

  Winning, Hard, Loses

  Song: Fumblin' With the Blues, Album: The Heart of Saturday Night

  4 Copy quote

• If you are recording, you are recording. I don't believe there is such a thing as a demo or a temporary vocal. The drama around even sitting in the car and singing into a tape recorder that's as big as your hand - waiting until it's very quiet, doing your thing, and then playing it back and hoping you like it - is the same basic anatomy as when you're in the recording studio, really. Sometimes it's better that way because some of the pressure is off and you can pretend it's throwaway.

  Tom Waits

  Drama, Believe, Hands

  Interview with Mark Richardson, pitchfork.com. October 18, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• I think this whole division between the genres has more to do with marketing than anything else. It's terrible for the culture of music.

  Tom Waits

  Thinking, Marketing, Culture

  Interview with Mark Richardson, pitchfork.com. October 18, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• There's a place down the street; Seven Xs. What does that mean? Maybe it's... girls without skin.

  Tom Waits

  Girl, Mean, Skins

  4 Copy quote

• When you're a kid and you're trying to find your own voice, it's rather daunting to hear somebody like Howlin' Wolf, because you know that you'll never achieve that.

  Tom Waits

  Kids, Voice, Trying

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

  4 Copy quote

• Your old home town's so far away, but inside your head there's a record that's playing, a song called 'Hold On

  Tom Waits

  Song, Home, Records

  Song: Hold On, Album: Mule Variations

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• Now its raining its pouring the old man is snoring now I lay me down to sleep I hear the sirens in the street all my dreams are made of chrome I have no way to get back home I’d rather die before I wake like Marilyn Monroe and throw my dreams out in the street and the rain make ‘em grow

  Tom Waits

  Dream, Rain, Home

  7 Copy quote

• Most songs that aren't jump-rope songs, or lullabies, are cautionary tales or goodbye songs and road songs.

  Tom Waits

  Goodbye, Song, Rope

  "Tom Waits: 'I look like hell but I'm going to see where it gets me" by Tim Adams, www.theguardian.com. October 22, 2011.

  8 Copy quote

• When you say you're doing an opera, it's like when you're a seven-year-old and say, 'I'm off to Washington, Dad.' You kind of go, 'Sure. Sure you are, son.'

  Tom Waits

  Dad, Son, Years

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  6 Copy quote

• The ship is sinking The ship is sinking There's leak, there's a leak,in the boiler room The poor, the lame, the blind Who ore the ones that we kept in charge Killers, thieves, and lawyers God's Away, God's away God's away on Business

  Tom Waits

  Boiler Room, Thieves, Lame

  Song: God's Away On Business

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• The Music was like Electric Sugar

  Tom Waits

  Sugar, Electric

  Song: Live Circus, Album: Real Gone, 2004

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• I don't know if any genuine meaningful change could ever result from a song. It's kind of like throwing peanuts at a gorilla.

  Tom Waits

  Meaningful, Song, Gorillas

  "Off beat". Interview with Sean O'Hagan, www.theguardian.com. October 28, 2006.

  6 Copy quote

• It's a battered old suitcase and a hotel someplace and a wound that will never heal.

  Tom Waits

  Travel, Journey, Suitcases

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• All records are riddles, and whatever you may want people to think it's about, it may just be throwing them off. And you don't want it to get in the way of what someone else's understanding is. It's not really about anything. At the same time, it will find some meaning.

  Tom Waits

  Thinking, People, Understanding

  7 Copy quote

• Let me fall out of the window/ With confetti in my hair

  Tom Waits

  Fall, Hair, Window

  Song: Tango 'til They're Sore, Album: Rain Dogs

  25 Copy quote

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