Tom Waits quote: "I didn't really want to be part of a clique or a niche. But I also was looking for my own voice, as a writer, y'know? And a world I could call my own."

Songs really are like a form of time travel because they really have moved forward in a bubble. Ever...
TOM WAITS

Don't you know there ain't no devil, it's just god when he's drunk.
TOM WAITS

Oh, I got a beautiful 1959 Cadillac Coupe DeVille four-door. No one will ride in it with me.
TOM WAITS

Mostly, I straddle reality and the imagination. My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a soc...
TOM WAITS

My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind m...
TOM WAITS

The blues is like a planet. It's an enormous topic. You can't ignore the impact that it has ...
TOM WAITS

I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.
TOM WAITS

The piano has been drinking, not me.
TOM WAITS

I always had a great appreciation for jazz, but I'm a very pedestrian musician. I get by. I like...
TOM WAITS

I'm so horny the crack of dawn better watch out.
TOM WAITS

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

Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends.
TOM WAITS

Writing songs is like capturing birds without killing them. Sometimes you end up with nothing but a ...
TOM WAITS

I bark my voice out through a closed throat, pretty much. It's more, perhaps, like a dog in some...
TOM WAITS

When you're writing, you're conjuring. It's a ritual, and you need to be brave and respe...
TOM WAITS

If you record the sound of bacon in a frying pan and play it back, it sounds like the pops and crack...
TOM WAITS

I always liked the idea that America is a big facade. We are all insects crawling across on the shin...
TOM WAITS

We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is...
TOM WAITS

People say all kinds of things about the ingredients of songs. But you know they are a kind of magic...
TOM WAITS

I do like books on anatomy. I have to say I'm an amateur physician, I guess.
TOM WAITS

I have a Chamberlain I bought from some surfers in Westwood many years ago. It's an early analog...
TOM WAITS

I don't like the word 'poetry,' and I don't like poetry readings, and I usually don&...
TOM WAITS

George Bush is a fan of mine, he came to see me in the Seventies. His coke dealer brought him.
TOM WAITS

I saw a crow building a nest, I was watching him very carefully, I was kind of stalking him and he w...
TOM WAITS

I hate Disneyland. It primes our kids for Las Vegas.
TOM WAITS

If you are recording, you are recording. I don't believe there is such a thing as a demo or a te...
TOM WAITS

Any place is good for eavesdropping, if you know how to eavesdrop.
TOM WAITS

The sight of the first woman in the minimal two-piece was as explosive as the detonation of the atom...
TOM WAITS

Most people don't care if you're telling them the truth or if you're telling them a lie,...
TOM WAITS

My kids are starting to notice I'm a little different from the other dads. "Why don't you have a str...
TOM WAITS

I don't know if any genuine, meaningful change could ever result from a song. It's kind of l...
TOM WAITS

George Burns was a Vaudeville performer I particularly loved.
TOM WAITS

My first big gig was an opening show for Frank Zappa, and I think that was difficult.
TOM WAITS

But then I'm one of those guys that is still a bit afraid of the telephone, its implications for...
TOM WAITS

Somebody said I sound like an old lady, and I was really insulted by that. I'm trying to sound l...
TOM WAITS

I admit that I ain't no angel, I admit that I ain't no saint-- I'm selfish and I'm cruel and I'm bli...
TOM WAITS

I'm one of those guys that is still a bit afraid of the telephone, its implications for conversa...
TOM WAITS

If you're a writer, you know that the stories don't come to you - you have to go looking for...
TOM WAITS

If people are a little nervous about approaching you at the market, it's good. I'm not Chuck...
TOM WAITS

Sometimes the magnetism of a song is impossible to ignore, and it demands that it be sung in a certa...
TOM WAITS

Apparently the highest compliment our culture grants artists nowadays is to be in an ad — ideally ...
TOM WAITS

Their memory's like a train: you can see it getting smaller as it pulls away And the things you can'...
TOM WAITS

and I have lawyers over there investigating my options.
TOM WAITS

It's hard to win when you always lose.
TOM WAITS

Easy Rider.
TOM WAITS

had no interest in being associated with any advertisement campaigns whatsoever.
TOM WAITS

Well, it's either kiss me or kill me, that's how I see it.
TOM WAITS

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

I'm so horny the crack of dawn better watch out.
TOM WAITS

I'm just trying to make a buck like everyone else.
TOM WAITS

Apparently the highest compliment our culture grants artists nowadays is to be in an ad ideally n...
TOM WAITS

Their memory's like a train: you can see it getting smaller as it pulls away And the things you can...
TOM WAITS

What you want is for music to love you back. That's why you pay your dues. You want to feel like...
TOM WAITS

The big print giveth and the small print taketh away.
TOM WAITS

Children make up the best songs, anyway. Better than grown-ups. Kids are always working on songs and...
TOM WAITS

I don't have a drinking problem 'Cept when I can't get a drink.
TOM WAITS

I'd rather have a free bottle in front of me than a prefrontal lobotomy
TOM WAITS

Don't you know there ain't no devil, it's just god when he's drunk
TOM WAITS

Always keep a diamond in your mind.
TOM WAITS

George Bush is a fan of mine -- he came to see me in the Seventies. His coke dealer brought him.
TOM WAITS

Belly of a Drunken Piano.
TOM WAITS

Any image I have, it's just what I do, but it comes off as being very pretentious. When you'...
TOM WAITS

All records are riddles, and whatever you may want people to think it's about, it may just be th...
TOM WAITS

I knelt at the altar of Ray Charles for years. I worked at a restaurant, and that's all there wa...
TOM WAITS

dark clown on a chicken farm.
TOM WAITS

As a kid, I did want to be an old-timer, since they were the ones with the big stories and the cool ...
TOM WAITS

I used to think that all great recordings happened at about 3 A.M.
TOM WAITS

Most songs have meager beginnings. You wake up in the morning, you throw on your suspenders, and you...
TOM WAITS

A gentleman is someone who can play the accordion, but doesn't.
TOM WAITS

There ain't no devil, only God when he's drunk.
TOM WAITS

You know what I really love? The CD players in a car. How when you put the CD right up by the slot, ...
TOM WAITS

For a songwriter, you don't really go to songwriting school; you learn by listening to tunes. An...
TOM WAITS

We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is...
TOM WAITS

I used to imagine that making it in music - really making it in music - is if you're an old man ...
TOM WAITS

I think all songs should have weather in them. Names of towns and streets, and they should have a co...
TOM WAITS

We're really proud. We wanted to come in, play hard and hustle from the opening tip until the very e...
GREG WAITS

I think a shot clock would be good for the game. For the up-tempo style we like to play, it wouldn't...
GREG WAITS

Shutting them out on the first quarter was big. That set the tone for the rest of the game.
GREG WAITS

They're a very big team. It's a good, solid team and we've got our work cut out for us. We're lookin...
GREG WAITS

Nothing we can do will surprise them. There's nothing they can do that will surprise us. Lancaster h...
GREG WAITS

Clark is shooting the ball extremely well the last couple of weeks. With him doing that, it'll draw ...
GREG WAITS

No, I don't think we're playing extremely well. But we always want to be playing our best basketball...
GREG WAITS

Central is extremely athletic and can beat anybody any night. All we want to do is improve in everyt...
GREG WAITS

If some of those easy ones go in early, it could have been a different game. But the bottom line is ...
GREG WAITS

This was like a championship atmosphere. This place was packed on a Tuesday night, we never see that...
GREG WAITS

Both destiny and free will exist simultaneously. You are destined to be given some opportunities but...
TOM TOM

During times of hardship people find happiness in simplest pleasures
TOM TOM

Am I good enough?
Trust.
TOM

The demons you have are what motivate you to make your art. This is what drives the detective, this ...
TOM REISS

Really, coaching is simplicity. It's getting players to play better than they think that they ca...
TOM LANDRY

There's this misconception that the Navy is this cruise ship, and you get to go out and sail aro...
TOM HANKS

Talk is over-rated as a means of settling disputes.
TOM CRUISE

Nothing ends nicely, that's why it ends.
TOM CRUISE

Have you ever gotten the feeling that you aren't completely embarassed yet, but you glimpse tomo...
TOM CRUISE

When I first started out all the attention could be a bit unnerving, especially when people stared. ...
TOM CRUISE

I've spent many birthdays on a movie set, all great days.
TOM CRUISE

I've always had the same values. Family for me has always been important. When I shoot, everybod...
TOM CRUISE

When I'm promoting a film, I'm not going to get caught up in anything else, and that include...
TOM CRUISE

Whether it's making a film or raising my children, personally I'm striving to do the right t...
TOM CRUISE

I like to work with people that I like hanging out with, that I admire, that are really smart and ta...
TOM CRUISE

If I don't talk about my religion, if I say I'm not discussing it or different humanitarian ...
TOM CRUISE

Saddam has committed many crimes against humanity and against his own people.
TOM CRUISE

What I find sometimes that is tricky is if actors are using too much of their own life in a picture,...
TOM CRUISE

I'm always around my mother and sisters. I always wanted to be a father, a husband.
TOM CRUISE

As a young actor, people were trying to define who I was before I really knew that for myself. But I...
TOM CRUISE

The thing about film-making is I give it everything, that's why I work so hard. I always tell yo...
TOM CRUISE

The exciting part of acting, I don't know how else to explain it, are those moments when you sur...
TOM CRUISE

I've never made a film that I didn't believe in, you know? However the picture turns out, I&...
TOM CRUISE

I didn't become an actor to have power, but it just happens that I have it and so I have a lot o...
TOM CRUISE

I've never done work for money ever. If your choices are based on grosses and the film doesn'...
TOM CRUISE

Do I make mistakes? Yeah.
TOM CRUISE

I've learned to relax more. Everybody feels pressure in what they do, maybe mine is just a littl...
TOM CRUISE

I go without sleep, I just go hard.
TOM CRUISE

When you have to cope with a lot of problems, you're either going to sink or you're going to...
TOM CRUISE

Football is unconditional love.
TOM BRADY

My favorite meal has always been fried chicken.
TOM WATSON

The dream is to keep surprising yourself, never mind the audience.
TOM HIDDLESTON

Eighteenth-century doctors prescribed sugar pills for nearly everything: heart problems, headache, c...
TOM REISS

Treat everyone with respect and kindness. Period. No exceptions.
KIANA TOM

Good things, when short, are twice as good.
TOM STOPPARD

Time is short, life is short, there's a lot to know. So I skip the entertainers in the newspaper...
TOM STOPPARD

The thing that happens remarkably often is that the people who are writing a dissertation believe th...
TOM STOPPARD

I'm offended by things and take pathetic little stands against them.
TOM STOPPARD

My whole life is waiting for the questions to which I have prepared answers.
TOM STOPPARD

The text loses its virginity simply by being staged: it's no longer the abstract ideal version; ...
TOM STOPPARD

I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones...
TOM STOPPARD

Any revival in which I am involved is liable to change.
TOM STOPPARD

Hotel rooms inhabit a separate moral universe.
TOM STOPPARD

All your life, you live so close to truth, it becomes a permanent blur in the corner of your eye. An...
TOM STOPPARD

Theatre is a series of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.
TOM STOPPARD

The whole philosophy of modern times is to dissolve distinctions between individuals and deal with t...
TOM STOPPARD

For me, human rights simply endorse a view of life and a set of moral values that are perfectly clea...
TOM STOPPARD

Every exit is an entry somewhere else.
TOM STOPPARD

Procrastination is probably my worst habit out of many. Especially when it comes to paperwork.
TOM CONTI

I love what I do. I take great pride in what I do. And I can't do something halfway, three-quart...
TOM CRUISE

Mentally, the only players who survive in the pros are the ones able to manage all their responsibil...
TOM BRADY

Sometimes, getting up in the morning and brushing your teeth is the hardest part of the day - it all...
TOM BRADY

Every man should know, if you're comfortable and you like it, you should do it. Everyone always ...
TOM BRADY

The only thing I ever wanted to be was a professional football player.
TOM BRADY

I'm never going to be fast, and nobody will ever mistake me for being fast.
TOM BRADY

So many guys are so conservative with their hair, and I always joke with all my buddies when they me...
TOM BRADY

If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.
TOM BRADY

My job is to play quarterback, and I'm going to do that the best way I know how, because I owe t...
TOM BRADY

There's not much time to unwind, but you know what, it's because I love what I do. I look fo...
TOM BRADY

I think the great part about what I do is that there's a scoreboard. At the end of every week, y...
TOM BRADY

I don't think any country is perfect. It's our responsibility to do the best we can do to ch...
TOM BRADY

You have to believe in your process. You have to believe in the things that you are doing to help th...
TOM BRADY

The true competitors, though, are the ones who always play to win.
TOM BRADY

When you're one of the leaders of the team, there are no days off.
TOM BRADY

I was the kid that was the 199th pick that never had the body for it. People didn't think I'...
TOM BRADY

Geometric shapes hold an energy pattern, and scientists did some experiments which say certain geome...
TOM DELONGE

I just love working hard. I love being part of a team; I love working toward a common goal.
TOM BRADY

What the United States needs to do at this point is reaffirm our commitment that Assad must go and t...
TOM COTTON

So rather than face the bitter truth, China has placed severe restrictions on the Internet and enlis...
TOM LANTOS

I think these movies are definitely comedies. It's quite difficult to take a superhero movie ser...
TOM HOLLAND

Every chef has his treats. By that, I mean bits and pieces from things you're working on - crust...
TOM DOUGLAS

I've gotten very good at scheduling my life, scheduling the scene and preparing myself for knowi...
TOM CRUISE

I grew up watching 'Superman.' As a child, when I first learned to dive into a swimming pool...
TOM HIDDLESTON

Catfish has a nice firm texture and mild flavor.
TOM DOUGLAS

You have to enable and empower people to make decisions independent of you. As I've learned, eac...
TOM RIDGE

America's health care system is in crisis precisely because we systematically neglect wellness a...
TOM HARKIN

My wife and I decided to try and kick start our kitchens to a $15 minimum wage for cooks. I've p...
TOM DOUGLAS

I think we're very uptight in America. You have to remember that we're descended from Purita...
TOM FORD

Everybody has something that chews them up and, for me, that thing was always loneliness. The cinema...
TOM HANKS

I have a weakness for watches. I have to stop myself buying more.
TOM JONES

We are set to make very bad history.
TOM WILSON

These days an income is something you can't live without - or within.
TOM WILSON

If I had a nickel for every time I said 'Why me?' I'd have probably said 'Why me?...
TOM WILSON

What this country needs is a credit card for charging things to experience.
TOM WILSON

The waist is a terrible thing to mind.
TOM WILSON

Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.
TOM WILSON

If you spend all of your time racing ahead to the future, you're liable to discover you've l...
TOM WILSON

Many of us are more capable than some of us... but none of us is as capable as all of us!
TOM WILSON

Happiness doesn't depend on how much you have to enjoy, but how much you enjoy what you have.
TOM WILSON

There's no future in spending our present worrying about our past.
TOM WILSON

Nobody got where they are today by living for tomorrow.
TOM WILSON

About the only time losing is more fun than winning is when you're fighting temptation.
TOM WILSON

If I ever had an out-of-body experience - I'd try to come back to a different one.
TOM WILSON

I wouldn't mind the rat race - if the rats would lose once in a while.
TOM WILSON

Mondays are the potholes in the road of life.
TOM WILSON

A smile is a facelift that's in everyone's price range!
TOM WILSON

Love is the ultimate expression of the will to live.
TOM WOLFE

It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting.
TOM STOPPARD

Miami is a melting pot in which none of the stones melt. They rattle around.
TOM WOLFE

Stem cell research holds out the promise of finding cures and treatments for a wide range of disease...
TOM ALLEN

Some people are cowards... I think by and large a third of people are villains, a third are cowards,...
TOM HANKS

Obviously, you would give your life for your children, or give them the last biscuit on the plate. B...
TOM STOPPARD

Everybody who is anyone wanted to meet a real life gangster, and here's Joey Gallo hitting the s...
TOM FOLSOM

The secret to winning is constant, consistent management.
TOM LANDRY

From as long as, literally as far back as I can remember I've liked puns, word jokes, I can lite...
TOM STOPPARD

No other game combines the wonder of nature with the discipline of sport in such carefully planned w...
TOM WATSON

Golf is a game of ego, but it is also a game of integrity: the most important thing is you do what i...
TOM WATSON

Music is probably the only real magic I have encountered in my life. There's not some trick invo...
TOM PETTY

I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term w...
TOM STOPPARD

Be prepared, and be careful not to do your good deeds when there's no one watching you.
TOM LEHRER

I understand the concept of optimism. But I think with me what you get is a lack of cynicism.
TOM HANKS

A great production of a black comedy is better than a mediocre production of a comedy of errors.
TOM STOPPARD

I have spoken to Donald Trump about this. He understands the dramatic budget cuts our military has f...
TOM COTTON

When I was 20, in 1957, and maybe you would say I was old enough to know better, but nevertheless, I...
TOM STOPPARD

I didn't really want to be part of a clique or a niche. But I also was looking for my own voice, as a writer, y'know? And a world I could call my own.

Copied!

Tom Waits

I didn't really want to be part of a clique or a niche. But I also was looking for my own voice, as a writer, y'know? And a world I could call my own.

Tom Waits

Share:

Related

More Tom Waits