Quote

Oh, I'm not a percussionist, I just like to hit things.

Tom Waits

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

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
Things
Like

More quotes by Tom Waits

Image
All that you've loved is all you own
Tom Waits
Image
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
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 anything during the time when I wrote no songs. I was creative, but in another way. I had ideas for songs and collected the ideas.
Tom Waits
Image
Anton brings the camera. I'll bring a tuba, wear black, not shave, and take us to a burned-down Chinese restaurant. (On being photographed by his longtime photo collaborator Anton Corbijn)
Tom Waits
Image
I was always laughing in church.
Tom Waits
Image
Well you say that it's gospel, But I know that it's only church.
Tom Waits
Image
When you say you're doing an opera, it's like when you're a seven-year-old and say, 'I'm off to Washington, Dad.' You kind of go, 'Sure. Sure you are, son.'
Tom Waits
Image
Every single song has its own individual character and you can't treat each song the same way, because it wants to be treated differently and there are songs that are like scared birds that you have to sneak up on over the course of months in the woods.
Tom Waits
Image
They called it the Terminal Bar but they had no idea that like twenty years later the place'd be filling up with terminal cases.
Tom Waits
Image
I'm usually more concerned with how things sound than how they look on the page.
Tom Waits
Image
George Bush is a fan of mine, he came to see me in the Seventies. His coke dealer brought him.
Tom Waits
Image
I've lost my equilibrium, my car keys, and my pride.
Tom Waits
Image
If you record the sound of bacon in a frying pan and play it back, it sounds like the pops and cracks on an old 33 1/3 recording. Almost exactly like that. You could substitute it for that sound.
Tom Waits
Image
Well it's hotter 'n blazes and all the long faces / there'll be no oasis for a dry local grazier
Tom Waits
Image
New York forces you to be in endless surreal situations.
Tom Waits
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
Image
When it's raining you can't find enough things to catch it in. When it's not you can stand out in the middle of the street in a dress and a funny hat and nothing's gonna make it rain. I go through periods - or spells - when I'm more receptive.
Tom Waits
Image
Chevrolet was puzzled when they discovered that their sales for the Chevy Nova were off the charts everywhere but in Latin America. They finally realized that Nova in Spanish translates to no go. Not the best name for a car... anywhere no va.
Tom Waits
Image
I know a girl, she been married so many times, she got rice marks all over her face
Tom Waits
Image
The fact is most of the things that people know about me are made up. My own life is backstage. So what you know about me is only what I allowed you to know about me.
Tom Waits