"Writing songs is like capturing birds without killing them. Sometimes you end up with nothing but a mouthful of feathers."
Read quote
12 likes
Quote collection
Tom Waits quotes (page 5 of 15)
282 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"On my gravestone, I want it to say, "I told you I was sick.""
Read quote
12 likes
"And the earth died screaming, while I lay dreaming."
Read quote
12 likes
"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."
Read quote
12 likes
"The ocean doesn't want me today, But I'll come back tomorrow to play. The riptide is waging And the life guard's away But the ocean doesn't want me today"
Read quote
12 likes
"The piano has been drinking, not me."
Read quote
11 likes
"Most vagabonds i knowed don't ever want to find the culprit that remains the object of their long relentless quest. The obsession's in the chasing and not the apprehending, the pursuit you see and never the arrest" - Tom Waits "Foreign Affairs"
Read quote
11 likes
"She's a shiksa goddess and a trapeze artist, all of that. She can fix the truck...she's outta this world...she's bold, inventive and fearless. That's who you wanna go in the woods with, right? Somebody who finishes your sentences for you."
Read quote
10 likes
"I always had a great appreciation for jazz, but I'm a very pedestrian musician. I get by. I like to think that my main instrument is vocabulary."
Read quote
10 likes
"You're innocent when you dream."
Read quote
10 likes
"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."
Read quote
10 likes
"If you can make a little painting for the ears with a few words, well, I like words; I like cutting them up and finding different ways of saying the same thing... I get into a spell, and it all comes easy. I don't labor over it. I go inside the song, I think you make yourself an antenna for songs, and songs want to be around you. And then they bring other songs along, and then they're all sitting around, and they're drinkin' your beer, and they're sleeping on the floor. And they are using the phone, they're rude, thankless little f---ers."
Read quote
10 likes
"You can learn a lot about a woman by getting smashed with her."
Read quote
10 likes
"I was born in the back seat of a Yellow Cab in a hospital loading zone and with the meter still running. I emerged needing a shave and shouted 'Time Square, and step on it!'"
Read quote
10 likes
"Songs are pretty easy. They are small, they are modular, they are about as big as a bagel. They are easy to build. Films are overwhelming in their magnitude and scope. By comparison, a lot of film directors wish they were writing songs because you can do it while getting your hair cut."
Read quote
10 likes
"Presley's what I go by, why don't you change the station."
Read quote
10 likes
"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."
Read quote
10 likes
"All that you've loved is all you own"
Read quote
9 likes
"Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends."
Read quote
9 likes
"I've lost my equilibrium, my car keys, and my pride."
Read quote
9 likes