I always thought songs are movies for the ears and films are like songs for the eyes. — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
Sometimes words are just music themselves. Like 'Chicago' is a very musical sounding name. — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
With families and music, you're usually looking for something that can make you unique. — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
Most songs that aren't jump-rope songs, or lullabies, are cautionary tales or goodbye songs and road songs. — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
I'm always looking for sounds that are pleasing at the time. The sound of a helicopter is really annoying until you're drowning,… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
Most changes in music, most exciting things that happen in music, occur through a miscommunication between people "I thought you said this."… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
Sometimes when you're making songs you just make sounds, and the sounds slowly mutate and evolve into actual words that have meaning. — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
It's terrible for the culture of music. Like anything that is purely economic, it ignores the most important component. — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
What you want is for music to love you back. That's why you pay your dues. You want to feel like you… — 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… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
I'm trying to get music ideas that come and keep them alive. It's like carrying water in your hands. I want to… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
You know when you throw a party, you think people will show up and no one will like each other. It's like… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
The blues is like a planet. It's an enormous topic. You can't ignore the impact that it has had and continues to… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
Children make up the best songs, anyway. Better than grown-ups. Kids are always working on songs and throwing them away, like little… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
There's only one reason why you write new songs: You get sick of the old songs. It's not that I didn't do… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
The first time I started listening to Irish music, I had a very strong connection. Strangely enough, there's a great many Japanese… — 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
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
Songs really are like a form of time travel because they really have moved forward in a bubble. Everyone who's connected with… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
He likes a day in the studio to end, he says, "when my knees are all skinned up and my pants are… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
“My kids are starting to notice I'm a little different from the other dads. "Why don't you have a straight job like… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
I think this whole division between the genres has more to do with marketing than anything else. It's terrible for the culture… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
If you're in the middle of the ocean with no flippers and no life preserver and you hear a helicopter, this is… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
But then I'm one of those guys that is still a bit afraid of the telephone, its implications for conversation. I still… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
I never looked at music as a serious venture. There was very little encouragement from my family. I didn't have anybody to… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
I'm one of those guys that is still a bit afraid of the telephone, its implications for conversation. I still wonder if… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
Writing songs is like capturing birds without killing them. Sometimes you end up with nothing but a mouthful of feathers. — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
I like writing melody without an instrument. It's just so - it's more like the choreography of a bee; you just go. — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
I didn't really identify with the music of my own generation, but I was very curious about the music of others. — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
Most songs have meager beginnings. You wake up in the morning, you throw on your suspenders, and you subvocalize and just think.… — 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
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
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 Image
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 Image
“an all time favorite: "The large print giveth, the small print taketh away.” — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
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 Image
The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering. — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
