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Tom Waits

Tom Waits Quotes

Singer-songwriter

Tom Waits, born on December 7, 1949, is an influential American singer-songwriter and actor. Known for his unique musical style that blends blues, jazz, folk, and country elements, he is often referred to as 'the oddball of American music.' Waits is renowned for his distinctive voice and expressive lyrics, and his work has earned high praise in both the music and literary worlds.

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All Knows Ifs Thinking Song Way Want People Writing Bigs Hands Men Wells World Kind Littles Sometimes Music Play Stills Devil

Famous Tom Waits Quotes

“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.”

Ifs Knows Kind Song Results Meaningful Genuine Throwing Peanuts Gorillas

Author:Tom Waits

“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.”

Ifs Men Children Used Song Culture Imagine Music Is Singing Ultimate Old Man Swings Imagine That Rope Jump Rope

Author:Tom Waits

“Sometimes when you're making songs you just make sounds, and the sounds slowly mutate and evolve into actual words that have meaning.”

Sometimes Song Sound Evolve

Author:Tom Waits

“People make songs so that somebody else will hear them and want to do them. I guess it's an indication that the songs aren't so ultra-personal that they can't possibly be interpreted by anyone else.”

People Want Song Indication Ultras

Author:Tom Waits

“Songs are pretty easy. They are small, they are modular, they are about as big as a bagel. They are easy to build. Films are overwhelming in their magnitude and scope. By comparison, a lot of film directors wish they were writing songs because you can do it while getting your hair cut.”

Writing Bigs Film Song Wish Easy Can Do Cutting Hair Directors Comparison Overwhelming You Can Do It Scope Magnitude Writing Songs Film Directors Bagels Hair Cut

Author:Tom Waits

“Songs are really just very interesting things to be doing with the air.”

Song Interesting Air Very Interesting Interesting Things

Author:Tom Waits

“It's rather mystifying when you think about writing songs - where they come from, and how they're born.”

Thinking Writing Song Born Writing Songs

Author:Tom Waits

“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.”

Way Want Character Song Courses Individual Months Bird Treats Scared Woods Treated Sneak

Author:Tom Waits

“If you can make a little painting for the ears with a few words, well, I like words; I like cutting them up and finding different ways of saying the same thing... I get into a spell, and it all comes easy. I don't labor over it. I go inside the song, I think you make yourself an antenna for songs, and songs want to be around you. And then they bring other songs along, and then they're all sitting around, and they're drinkin' your beer, and they're sleeping on the floor. And they are using the phone, they're rude, thankless little f---ers.”

Ifs Thinking Way Want Wells Littles Different Song Easy Sleep Cutting Painting Findings Labor Ears Drinking Phones Beer Different Ways Over It Spells Rude Few Words Thankless Antenna

Author:Tom Waits

“I don't like hearing Beatles songs in commercials. It almost renders them useless. I think, 'Oh God, another one bites the dust.'”

Thinking Song Hearing Dust Useless Bites

Author:Tom Waits

“There's only one reason why you write new songs: You get sick of the old songs. It's not that I didn't do anything during the time when I wrote no songs. I was creative, but in another way. I had ideas for songs and collected the ideas.”

Way Writing Ideas Reason Song Creative Sick Reason Why Another Way New Songs Old Song

Author:Tom Waits

“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.”

Thinking Should Song Names Streets Couple Should Have Towns Weather Sailor Prerequisites

Author:Tom Waits

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

Way Sometimes Certain Song Impossible Demand Magnetism

Author:Tom Waits

“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.”

Years Form Song Three Left Gone Minutes Periods Musician Years Ago Moved Studios Connected Bubbles Rock N Roll Time Travel

Author:Tom Waits

“Most songs that aren't jump-rope songs, or lullabies, are cautionary tales or goodbye songs and road songs.”

Song Tales Goodbye Rope Lullaby Cautionary Tales Jump Rope

Author: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.”

Thinking Writing I Can Stories Hands Seems Form Song Interesting Morning Wake Up Tape Bats Recorders Calcium Suspenders

Author:Tom Waits

“Your old home town's so far away, but inside your head there's a record that's playing, a song called 'Hold On”

Home Song Records Towns Far Away Home Town

Author:Tom Waits

“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.”

Ifs Children Littles Care Kids Song Loses Paper Don't Care Throwing Airplane Always Working Origami Paper Airplanes

Author:Tom Waits

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

Writing Ends Sometimes Song Bird Killing Songwriting Feathers Writing Songs

Author:Tom Waits

“Well you wave your hand and they scatter like crows They have nothing that will ever capture your heart They're just thorns without the rose Be careful of them in the dark Oh, if I was the one you chose to be your only one Oh baby can't you hear me now, can't you hear me now Will I see you tonight on a downtown train Every night it's just the same, you leave me lonely now”

Ifs Wells Heart Hands Night Song Dark Baby Lonely Train Rose Wave Careful Tonight Capture Be Careful Every Night Leaving Me Crow Thorns Downtown

Author:Tom Waits

“I always thought songs are movies for the ears and films are like songs for the eyes.”

Eye Film Song Ears

Author:Tom Waits

“Most of us have the residue of thousands of songs in our ears, that if you end up songwriting, I think you're mostly smoking the residue of all that material you absorbed over time.”

Ifs Thinking Ends Song Materials Ears Smoking Songwriting

Author:Tom Waits

About the Author

Born: December 7, 1949
Known for: Singer-songwriter
Quotes: 290

Related Topics

Knows Ifs Thinking Song Way Want People Writing Bigs Hands Men Wells World Kind Littles Sometimes Music Play Stills Devil

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

The Early Years: The Lyrics of Tom Waits 1971-1983Related source material

The Early Years: The Lyrics, 1971-1983Related source material

Tom Waits: Mule Variations Piano, Vocal and Guitar ChordsRelated source material

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