49 Best Tom Waits Quotes and Lyrics

1- “Words are music, really.”

2- “Well it’s hotter ‘n blazes and all the long faces / there’ll be no oasis for a dry local grazier”

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

4- “God’s away, God’s away, God’s away on business. Business!”

5- “I’m reliable sources, I’ll tell ya anything you want me to know.”

6- “With families and music, you’re usually looking for something that can make you unique.”

7- “You hope people are going to be listening to you after you’re gone. And they like you better after you’re gone.”

8- “Jesus Christ, this godamn rain, will someone put me on a train.”

9- “Any place is good for eavesdropping, if you know how to eavesdrop.”

10- “Misery is the River of the World”

11- “I’m usually more concerned with how things sound than how they look on the page.”

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

13- “I finally discovered that my life is more important than show business.”

14- “We are buried beneath the weight of information.”

15- “I’m not one of those people the tabloids chase around.”

16- “The things you absorb you will ultimately secrete. It’s all out there and available for you to enjoy…and be nourished by.”

17- “The moon was sharp enough to draw blood from a stone”

18- “Popular music is like a big party, and it’s a thrill sneaking in rather than being invited. Every once in a while, a guy with his shirt on inside out, wearing lipstick and a pillbox hat gets a chance to speak.”

19- “My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane.”

20- “I may be drunk but at least I’m not insane.”

21- “Let me fall out of the window/ With confetti in my hair”

22- “Music has generally involved a lot of awkward contraptions, a certain amount of heavy lifting.”

23- “You choke my days, I’ll choke yours.”

24- “It’s the same with men as with horses and dogs, nothing wants to die.”

25- “Got a head full of lightning, a hat full of rain.”

26- “The dog won’t bite if you beat Him with a bone”

27- “but it’s so hard to dance that way when it’s cold and there’s no music.”

28- “It was a hubba, hubba, ding dang, baby you are just everythang.”

29- “I’ve seen it all through the yellow windows of the evening train.”

30- “I’ve been riding on the crest of a slump lately”

31- “Never trust a man in a blue trench coat, never drive a car when you’re dead”

32- “The devil knows the Bible like the back of his hand…”

33- “You got to tell me the brave captain Why are the wicked so strong? How do the angels get to sleep When the devil leaves the porch light on?”

34- “You can learn a lot about a woman by getting smashed with her.”

35- “Don’t plant your days they turn into weeds”

36- “it ain’t no sin, to take off your skin and dance around in your bones”

37- “when your down on your luck and you’ve lost all your dreams theres nothing like a campfire and a can of beans”

38- “Don’t look back, because someone might be gaining on you.”

39- “The Universe is making music all the time.”

40- “There’s no prayer like desire.”

41- “Time is just memory Mixed in with Desire.”

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

43- “The trick is to have a career and have a family. It’s like having two dogs that hate each other and you have to take them for a walk every night.”

44- “If there’s one thing you can say about mankind, there’s nothing kind about man.”

45- “Sing me a rainbow. Steal me a dream.”

46- “Most people don’t care if you’re telling them the truth or if you’re telling them a lie, as long as they’re entertained by it.”

47- “If you get far enough away you’ll be on your way back home.”

48- “A gentleman is someone who can play the accordion, but doesn’t.”

49- “We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. We are monkeys with money and guns.”