Home / Authors / Tom Waits

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.

Filter quotes by topic

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 think this whole division between the genres has more to do with marketing than anything else. It's terrible for the culture of music.”

Thinking Whole Culture Terrible Marketing Genre Division

Author:Tom Waits

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

Thinking Addiction Adrenaline

Author:Tom Waits

“I always had a great appreciation for jazz, but I'm a very pedestrian musician. I get by. I like to think that my main instrument is vocabulary.”

Thinking Musician Instruments Jazz Appreciation Vocabulary Pedestrians

Author:Tom Waits

“My first big gig was an opening show for Frank Zappa, and I think that was difficult.”

Thinking Firsts Shows Bigs Difficult Opening Frank Gigs Zappa

Author:Tom Waits

“You cannot really be too concerned with what people think of you. You're on your own adventure of growth and discovery. So it's not always good to be who people think you are, especially if you subscribe to it as well ... which is easily done, because then you don't have to figure out who you are, you just ask somebody else.”

People Ifs Thinking Wells Done Asks Growth Figures Adventure Discovery Concerned Who You Are Think Of You

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

“I can't listen to so much music at the same time. I think you really have to have a diet. You're just processing too much, there's no place to put it. If you go a long time without hearing music, then you hear music that nobody else hears.”

Ifs Thinking Long I Can Too Much Long Time Hearing Diets Processing Hearing Music

Author:Tom Waits

“I think some bands thrive on the idea of changing instruments. When they're off their real instrument, the ability to go very far from the original idea is reduced.”

Thinking Ideas Real Ability Band Originals Instruments Thrive Original Ideas

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

“You know, we just buy music now. We don't make it any more. And that goes for just about everything. I think it's so important that people develop and subscribe to and have confidence in their own ability to make music, however rough it is.”

People Thinking Knows Important Ability Rough Have Confidence

Author:Tom Waits

“My wife called me a mule. She once said, "I didn't marry a man; I married a mule!" I kept thinking about it. It was in the back of my head. I think it makes a good title for an album.”

Thinking Men Said Wife Married Albums My Wife Titles Mules

Author:Tom Waits

“It wasn't good for my nerves, that kind of work - a fireman. I've got high blood pressure. I get upset easily. I don't think that was a proper career alternative for me.”

Thinking Kind Upset Fireman Blood Pressure

Author:Tom Waits

“I don't think that you should be perfectly candid and frank about the intimate details of your personal life with the public at large. Subsequently, it creates considerable personal problems.”

Thinking Problem Intimate Frank Personal Life Personal Problems

Author:Tom Waits

“In terms of black music - the only music that we can call our own, that was really born here - I don't think a lot has been done to chronicle the relations between American history and where black music fits in.”

Thinking Done Black Term Fit Relation American History

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

“All records are riddles, and whatever you may want people to think it's about, it may just be throwing them off. And you don't want it to get in the way of what someone else's understanding is. It's not really about anything. At the same time, it will find some meaning.”

People Thinking Way Want May Understanding Records Throwing Riddle

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

“You know when you throw a party, you think people will show up and no one will like each other. It's like that with music - parts of your musical psyche have never met other parts. You wonder if you should get them together.”

People Ifs Thinking Knows Should Shows Together Party Wonder Mets Musical

Author:Tom Waits

“This is about all the bad days in the world. I used to have some little bad days, and I kept them in a little box. And one day, I threw them out into the yard. "Oh, it's just a couple little innocent bad days." Well, we had a big rain. I don't know what it was growing in but I think we used to put eggshells out there and coffee grounds, too. Don't plant your bad days. They grow into weeks. The weeks grow into months. Before you know it you got yourself a bad year. Take it from me. Choke those little bad days. Choke 'em down to nothin'. They're your days. Choke 'em!”

Thinking Knows World Years Wells Littles Bigs Used Grows Growing Week Months Couple One Day Rain Plant Boxes Coffee Innocent Ems Yards Bad Day Choke Eggshells Bad Years

Author:Tom Waits

“He likes a day in the studio to end, he says, "when my knees are all skinned up and my pants are wet and my hair's off to one side and I feel like I've been in the foxhole all day. I don't think comfort is good for music. It's good to come out with skinned knuckles after wrestling with something you can't see. I like it when you come home at the end of the day from recording and someone says, "What happened to your hand?" And you don't even know. When you're in that place, you can dance on a broken ankle.”

Thinking Knows Feels Ends Home Hands Sides Happened Hair Broken Comfort Studios Likes Knees The End Of The Day Coming Home Wrestling Pants Wet Ankles Knuckles Foxholes

Author:Tom Waits

“My friends think I'm ugly, I gotta masculine face.”

Thinking Faces My Friends Ugly Masculine

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

“I guess I've always lived upside down when I want things I can't have. My wife actually thinks I have a syndrome called Reality Distortion Field. It's kind of like drugs, only you can't come back from it. Reality Distortion is almost a permanent condition. Things come in and they go out: Presto, chango! To a certain extent, I did that with myself. As a kid, I did want to be an old-timer, since they were the ones with the big stories and the cool clothes. I wanted to go there. Now, I guess I want to bring that with me and go back in time.”

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

Similar Authors

Taylor SwiftBrowse related quotes
Dolly PartonBrowse related quotes
Bob DylanBrowse related quotes
Paul McCartneyBrowse related quotes
Bruce SpringsteenBrowse related quotes
Tori AmosBrowse related quotes
Nick CaveBrowse related quotes
George SaundersBrowse related quotes
Stephen KingBrowse related quotes
Ani DiFrancoBrowse related quotes