Quote

My first big gig was an opening show for Frank Zappa, and I think that was difficult.

Tom Waits

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Tom Waits
Age: 74
Born: 1949
Born: December 7
Actor
Composer
Guitarist
Jazz Guitarist
Pianist
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Writer
Pomona
California
Thomas Alan Waits
Difficult
Shows
Firsts
Zappa
First
Gigs
Think
Frank
Thinking
Opening
Show
Bigs

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Children make up the best songs, anyway. Better than grown-ups. Kids are always working on songs and throwing them away, like little origami things or paper airplanes. They don't care if they lose it they'll just make another one.
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The blues and gospel stuff seemed to go together.
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There's always free cheddar in the mousetrap, baby.
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If people are a little nervous about approaching you at the market, it's good. I'm not Chuckles The Clown. Or Bozo. I don't cut the ribbon at the opening of markets. I don't stand next to the mayor. Hit your baseball into my yard, and you'll never see it again.
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Photos are profound because they have such short lives. They are more like fingerprints, dead leaves, rain puddles, or the corpses of flies.
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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.
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Folks who work here are professors. Don't replace all the knowers with guessors keep'em open they're the ears of the town
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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.
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There's a place down the street Seven Xs. What does that mean? Maybe it's... girls without skin.
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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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All medical procedures require two hands, so in a sense it's like when you play an instrument. That's what they call things that they use in their work: They call them instruments. A lot of people start out majoring in medicine and drop it and change their major to music.
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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.
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I know a girl, she been married so many times, she got rice marks all over her face
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You hope people are going to be listening to you after you're gone. And they like you better after you're gone.
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I did my time in the jail of your arms
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Come down off the cross, we could use the wood.
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You have to keep busy. After all, no dog's ever pissed on a moving car.
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You're my North Star when I'm lost and feeling blue.
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I'm just trying to make a buck like everyone else.
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I hate Disneyland. It primes our kids for Las Vegas.
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