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
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
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
Sometimes words are just music themselves. Like 'Chicago' is a very musical sounding name. — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
If you are recording, you are recording. I don't believe there is such a thing as a demo or a temporary vocal.… — 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
I've made a profound transformation. I've fashioned some cyber-underwear. I'm not scared of anything! Actually, I am scared of a few things.… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
Everything is explained now. We live in an age when you say casually to somebody 'What's the story on that?' and they… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
Sometimes the magnetism of a song is impossible to ignore, and it demands that it be sung in a certain way. — 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
