You just write and you don't try to make sense of it. You just put it down the way you got it. — 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
I’ve always believed that the way you affect your audience is more important than how many of them are there. — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
I just don't like the word 'fun'--it's like Volkswagen, or bell-bottoms, or patchouli-oil or bean-sprouts...it rubs me up the wrong way. — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
I don't go to church on Sunday, don't get on my knees to pray, or memorize the books of the Bible, I… — 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 walk with Jesus, he's gonna save your soul. You gotta keep the devil way down in the hole. He's got… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
Jimmy Stewart said he stopped making movies because he didn't like the way he looked on screen anymore. I'm more the guy… — 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
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
Now its raining its pouring the old man is snoring now I lay me down to sleep I hear the sirens in… — Tom Waits Copy Share Image
They have removed the struggle to find anything. And therefore there is no genuine sense of discovery. Struggle is the first thing… — 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
There’s nothing more embarrassing than a person who tries to guess what the great American public would like, makes a compromise for… — 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
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
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
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
