"Well it's hotter 'n blazes and all the long faces / there'll be no oasis for a dry local grazier"
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Quote collection
Tom Waits quotes (page 12 of 15)
282 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Words are music, really."
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"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."
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"Are you still jumping out of windows in expensive clothes?"
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"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."
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"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"
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"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."
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"...and I'm standing on the corner of Fifth and Vermouth."
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"When I started looking for pointed shoes, I used to go to Fairfax on Orchard Street in New York City, one of those little pushcart guys. I'd say, 'You got any pointy shoes?' They would go way, way in the back and come back with a dusty box, blow the dust off the top, and say, 'What do you want with these things? Give me twenty bucks. Go on, get outta here!' And that was the beginning."
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"There's a place down the street; Seven Xs. What does that mean? Maybe it's... girls without skin."
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"using parking meters as walking sticks."
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"I danced along a colored wind/ Dangled from a rope of sand"
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"I knelt at the altar of Ray Charles for years. I worked at a restaurant, and that's all there was on the jukebox."
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"I’ve never met anyone who made it with a chick because they owned a Tom Waits album. I’ve got all three, and it’s never helped me."
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"I'm not one of those people the tabloids chase around."
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"If you record the sound of bacon in a frying pan and play it back, it sounds like the pops and cracks on an old 33 1/3 recording. Almost exactly like that. You could substitute it for that sound."
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"The things you absorb you will ultimately secrete. It's all out there and available for you to enjoy...and be nourished by."
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"The moon was sharp enough to draw blood from a stone"
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"I do like books on anatomy. I have to say I'm an amateur physician, I guess."
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"bringing up children was]like living with a bunch of drunks...you really have to be on your toes all the time."
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