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Tom Waits

Tom Waits Quotes

Singer-songwriter

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Famous Tom Waits Quotes

“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.”

IfsThinkingWayWantWellsLittlesDifferentSongEasySleepCuttingPaintingFindingsLaborEarsDrinkingPhonesBeerDifferent WaysOver ItSpellsRudeFew WordsThanklessAntenna
Author:Tom Waits
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“Most vagabonds i knowed don't ever want to find the culprit that remains the object of their long relentless quest. The obsession's in the chasing and not the apprehending, the pursuit you see and never the arrest" - Tom Waits "Foreign Affairs”

WantLongWaitingObjectsRemainsAffairPursuitObsessionQuestsTomsChasingRelentlessCulpritVagabondsForeign Affairs
Book:The Early Years: The Lyrics of Tom Waits 1971-1983
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“If I want to walk out in the desert and heat up a can of beans on a fire, I still can. In those movies like Gattaca or whatever, the space age stuff is always all there is. But in the world there is never just one way of living. It's more like a big junkyard. Put it this way: I'm not afraid I'm going to end up on a space station in aluminium-foil underwear.”

IfsWorldWayWantStillsEndsBigsAgeStuffSpaceWalksFireOne WayDesertHeatJust OneStationsNot AfraidBeansUnderwearFoilsJunkyardAluminium
Author:Tom Waits
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“When I started looking for pointed shoes, I used to go to Fairfax on Orchard Street in New York City, one of those little pushcart guys. I'd say, 'You got any pointy shoes?' They would go way, way in the back and come back with a dusty box, blow the dust off the top, and say, 'What do you want with these things? Give me twenty bucks. Go on, get outta here!' And that was the beginning.”

WayWantGivingLittlesUsedGuyCitiesStreetsNew YorkGoes OnGive MeTwentiesShoesBlowBoxesDustNew York CityBucksOrchard
Author:Tom Waits
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“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.”

ThinkingWantKindI CanStoriesBigsRealityKidsWantedCertainWifeConditionsFieldsDrugClothesMy WifePermanentUpside DownDistortionSyndromesBack In TimeGo Back In TimeTimerOld Timers
Author:Tom Waits
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