Quote

I always liked the idea that America is a big facade. We are all insects crawling across on the shiny hood of a Cadillac. We're all looking at the wrapping. But we won't tear the wrapping to see what lies beneath.

Tom Waits

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TAGS & TOPICS

Tom Waits
Age: 74
Born: 1949
Born: December 7
Actor
Composer
Guitarist
Jazz Guitarist
Pianist
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Writer
Pomona
California
Thomas Alan Waits
Idea
Beneath
Cadillacs
America
Liked
Facade
Ideas
Across
Wrapping
Always
Lies
Shiny
Tears
Crawling
Looking
Hood
Lying
Insects
Bigs
Tear
Cadillac

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I guess I've always lived upside down when I want things I can't have.
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I'm just trying to make a buck like everyone else.
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I'm the type of guy who'd sell you a rat's asshole for a wedding ring.
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I was a fireman. I lived in the fire sta­tion for about a year. The pay wasn't so good. It was kind of like being in the army, or what I imagine that would be like.
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It's hard to win when you always lose.
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Never have your wallet with you onstage. It's bad luck. You shouldn't play the piano with money in your pocket. Play like you need the money.
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I'll take a rusty nail and scratch your initials on my arm.
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I used to imagine that making it in music - really making it in music - is if you're an old man going by a schoolyard and you hear children singing your songs, playing jump-rope, or on the swings. That's the ultimate. You're in the culture.
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Don't you know there ain't no devil, it's just god when he's drunk.
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Most songs have meager beginnings. You wake up in the morning, you throw on your suspenders, and you subvocalize and just think. They seem to form like calcium. I can't think of a story right off the bat that was that interesting. I write things on the back of my hand, usually, and sing into a tape recorder.
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