Every single song has its own individual character and you can't treat each song the same way, because it wants to be… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
You know, we just buy music now. We don't make it any more. And that goes for just about everything. I think… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
People say all kinds of things about the ingredients of songs. But you know they are a kind of magic, in the… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
In terms of black music - the only music that we can call our own, that was really born here - I… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
I used to imagine that making it in music - really making it in music - is if you're an old man… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
I can't listen to so much music at the same time. I think you really have to have a diet. You're just… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
Songs are pretty easy. They are small, they are modular, they are about as big as a bagel. They are easy to… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
Popular music is like a big party, and it’s a thrill sneaking in rather than being invited. Every once in a while,… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
There's a certain fast-food approach to the whole music thing that's changed the role it plays for us all. You are doing… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
Most of us have the residue of thousands of songs in our ears, that if you end up songwriting, I think you're mostly smoking… — Tom Waits Copy Share
Bill Hicks - blowtorch, excavator, truthsayer, and brain specialist. He will correct your vision. Others will drive on the road he built. — Tom Waits Copy Share
For a songwriter, you don't really go to songwriting school; you learn by listening to tunes. And you try to understand them and take… — Tom Waits Copy Share
The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering. — Tom Waits Copy Share
I'm always looking for sounds that are pleasing at the time. The sound of a helicopter is really annoying until you're drowning, and it's… — Tom Waits Copy Share
I was born in the back seat of a Yellow Cab in a hospital loading zone and with the meter still running. I emerged… — Tom Waits Copy Share
There's not much difference between what I appear to be on stage and what I am. I think people like that, that I'm not… — Tom Waits Copy Share
I bark my voice out through a closed throat, pretty much. It's more, perhaps, like a dog in some ways. It does have its… — Tom Waits Copy Share
