Quote

Popular music is like a big party, and it’s a thrill sneaking in rather than being invited. Every once in a while, a guy with his shirt on inside out, wearing lipstick and a pillbox hat gets a chance to speak.

Tom Waits

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Tom Waits
Age: 75
Born: 1949
Born: December 7
Actor
Composer
Guitarist
Jazz Guitarist
Pianist
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Writer
Pomona
California
Thomas Alan Waits
Speak
Popular
Sneaking
Music
Gets
Lipstick
Every
Inside
Shirt
Like
Guy
Invited
Party
Thrill
Chance
Hats
Rather
Shirts
Bigs
Wearing

More quotes by Tom Waits

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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.
Tom Waits
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The dog won't bite if you beat Him with a bone
Tom Waits
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There's nothing that makes me laugh more than being in the situation where you're not supposed to laugh. Funerals. People crying. Breaking down. Telling you their life. I'm the worst. I'm the worst at that.
Tom Waits
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Now its raining its pouring the old man is snoring now I lay me down to sleep I hear the sirens in the street all my dreams are made of chrome I have no way to get back home I’d rather die before I wake like Marilyn Monroe and throw my dreams out in the street and the rain make ‘em grow
Tom Waits
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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
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I guess I've always lived upside down when I want things I can't have.
Tom Waits
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You know what I really love? The CD players in a car. How when you put the CD right up by the slot, it actually takes it out of your hand, like it's hungry. It pulls it in, and you feel like it wants more silver discs.
Tom Waits
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I've lost my equilibrium, my car keys, and my pride.
Tom Waits
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The sight of the first woman in the minimal two-piece was as explosive as the detonation of the atomic bomb by the U.S. at Bikini Island in the Marshall Isles, hence the naming of the bikini.
Tom Waits
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I think all songs should have weather in them. Names of towns and streets, and they should have a couple of sailors. I think those are just song prerequisites.
Tom Waits
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Unfortunately, I made the mistake at one point of putting my address on the back of one of my albums, just to find out what would happen. I received a lot of disturbing mail and calls. Actually, I was living in a hotel, so it was easy enough to find the number. I got a kick out of it for a while. Then I realized what I'd done.
Tom Waits
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and when they pulled her from the wreck, you know, she still had on her shades
Tom Waits
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Well, they'll bark you down like carneys, sell you Christmas cards in June.
Tom Waits
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Misery is the River of the World
Tom Waits
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Sing me a rainbow. Steal me a dream.
Tom Waits
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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
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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
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You've gotta have somebody to trust, that knows a lot.
Tom Waits
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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.
Tom Waits
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when your down on your luck and you've lost all your dreams theres nothing like a campfire and a can of beans
Tom Waits