Tom Waits Quotes

39 Sourced Quotes

Pregnant women and Vietnam vets, beggin on the freeway, bout as hard as it gets.

Tom Waits
Our Father, who art in Cribari, hallowed be thy glass. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in the lounges. Give us this day our daily splash, and forgive us our hangovers as we forgive those who continue to hangover against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil... and somebody give us all a ride home.

Tom Waits
I don't have a drinking problem 'cept when I can't get a drink.

Tom Waits
When asked for advice for younger musicians:
"Break windows, smoke cigars, and stay up late. Tell 'em to do that, they'll find a little pot of gold."

Tom Waits
I'm drawn to people who use a certain vernacular and communicate with words. Words are music, really.

Tom Waits
I'm interested in things when I don't know what they are. Like "Hey, Ray, what the hell is this?" Oh, that's lipstick from the 1700s, that's dog food from the turn of the century, that's a hat from World War II. I'm interested in the minutiae of things. Oddities.

Tom Waits
Somebody did something a hundred years ago and it lasted three minutes and now they're gone and everyone who worked on it is gone, but it's not gone. It's still just as fresh as it was the day it was recorded.

Tom Waits
When you get a hold of somebody else's song, you make it your own. That's all you can do.

Tom Waits
There is no such thing as nonfiction. There is no such thing as truth. People who really know what happened aren't talking. And the people who don't have a clue, you can't shut them up.

Tom Waits