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 Copy Share Image
The ocean doesn't want me today, But I'll come back tomorrow to play. The riptide is waging And the life guard's away… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
I didn't really want to be part of a clique or a niche. But I also was looking for my own voice,… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
You want soldiers who, when they get to a river after a long march, don't start rooting for their canteen in their… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
You know what I really love? The CD players in a car. How when you put the CD right up by the… — 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
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
People make songs so that somebody else will hear them and want to do them. I guess it's an indication that the… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
When I started looking for pointed shoes, I used to go to Fairfax on Orchard Street in New York City, one of… — 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
All records are riddles, and whatever you may want people to think it's about, it may just be throwing them off. And… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
If I want to walk out in the desert and heat up a can of beans on a fire, I still can.… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
Most vagabonds i knowed don't ever want to find the culprit that remains the object of their long relentless quest. The obsession's… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
I guess I've always lived upside down when I want things I can't have. My wife actually thinks I have a syndrome… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
If you can make a little painting for the ears with a few words, well, I like words; I like cutting them… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
You almost have to create situations in order to write about them, so I live in a constant state of self-imposed poverty.… — 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
