Mostly, I straddle reality and the imagination. My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
When you're writing, you're conjuring. It's a ritual, and you need to be brave and respectful and sometimes get out of the… — 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
Never have your wallet with you onstage. It's bad luck. You shouldn't play the piano with money in your pocket. Play like… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
Q: What’s hard for you? A: Mostly I straddle reality and the imagination. My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
Never have your wallet with you onstage. It's bad luck. You shouldn't play the piano with money in your pocket. Play like… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane. — 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
