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I knelt at the altar of Ray Charles for years. I worked at a restaurant, and that's all there was on the jukebox.
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
Worked
Jukebox
Years
Knelt
Altar
Altars
Charles
Restaurant
Rays
Restaurants
More quotes by Tom Waits
There's truths there that spiral out of what appears to be just a word game. That's what I find mystifying about the meanings of things: they kind of unscrew themselves from the practical words.
Tom Waits
Any place is good for eavesdropping, if you know how to eavesdrop.
Tom Waits
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.
Tom Waits
Writing songs is like capturing birds without killing them. Sometimes you end up with nothing but a mouthful of feathers.
Tom Waits
The ship is sinking The ship is sinking There's leak, there's a leak,in the boiler room The poor, the lame, the blind Who ore the ones that we kept in charge Killers, thieves, and lawyers God's Away, God's away God's away on Business
Tom Waits
The blues and gospel stuff seemed to go together.
Tom Waits
I hope I'm becoming more eccentric. More room in the brain.
Tom Waits
Come down off the cross, we could use the wood.
Tom Waits
I don't know if any genuine meaningful change could ever result from a song. It's kind of like throwing peanuts at a gorilla.
Tom Waits
I saw a crow building a nest, I was watching him very carefully, I was kind of stalking him and he was aware of it. And you know what they do when they become aware of someone stalking them when they build a nest, which is a very vulnerable place to be? They build a decoy nest. It's just for you.
Tom Waits
You've gotta have somebody to trust, that knows a lot.
Tom Waits
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
but it's so hard to dance that way when it's cold and there's no music.
Tom Waits
If there's one thing you can say about mankind, there's nothing kind about man.
Tom Waits
Sometimes the magnetism of a song is impossible to ignore, and it demands that it be sung in a certain way.
Tom Waits
Jesus Christ, this godamn rain, will someone put me on a train.
Tom Waits
I'm so horny the crack of dawn better watch out.
Tom Waits
Most people don't care if you're telling them the truth or if you're telling them a lie, as long as they're entertained by it.
Tom Waits
I like Thelonious Monk, he's so gnarled, he's like a piece of machinery that's pulled up the bolts on the floor and gone off on its own.
Tom Waits
It's terrible for the culture of music. Like anything that is purely economic, it ignores the most important component.
Tom Waits
