Tom Waits Quotes & Sayings (Page 3)

“Sometimes the magnetism of a song is impossible to ignore, and it demands that it be sung in a certain way.”

“I think I have an adrenaline addiction, no question about that.”

“George Bush is a fan of mine, he came to see me in the Seventies. His coke dealer brought him.”

“The big print giveth and the small print taketh away.”

“When I was younger, I wanted to be older. Now I am older, I am not quite so sure.”

“Writing songs is like capturing birds without killing them. Sometimes you end up with nothing but a mouthful of feathers.”

“What you want is for music to love you back. That's why you pay your dues. You want to feel like you belong and are part of this symbiosis, metamorphosis, whatever you want to call it.”

“Mostly, I straddle reality and the imagination. My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane.”

“Songs really are like a form of time travel because they really have moved forward in a bubble. Everyone who's connected with it, the studio's gone, the musicians are gone, and the only thing that's left is this recording which was only about a three-minute period maybe 70 years ago.”

“The blues is like a planet. It's an enormous topic. You can't ignore the impact that it has had and continues to have on the whole musical culture. It's a tree that everyone is swinging from. Without it, I don't know where I would be. It's indelible and indispensable.”