Most changes in music, most exciting things that happen in music, occur through a miscommunication between people "I thought you said this." Poetry comes out of that too. Tom Waits More Quotes by Tom Waits More Quotes From Tom Waits When it's raining you can't find enough things to catch it in. When it's not you can stand out in the middle of the street in a dress and a funny hat and nothing's gonna make it rain. I go through periods - or spells - when I'm more receptive. Tom Waits hats dresses rain There's a place down the street; Seven Xs. What does that mean? Maybe it's... girls without skin. Tom Waits girl skins mean The moon was sharp enough to draw blood from a stone Tom Waits moon stones blood ...and I'm standing on the corner of Fifth and Vermouth. Tom Waits fifth standing drinking Misery is the River of the World Tom Waits misery rivers world 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. Tom Waits dust new-york blow You can drive out nature with a pitch fork Tom Waits forks back-again roaring I worry about a lot of things, but I don’t worry about achievements. I worry primarily about whether there are nightclubs in Heaven. Tom Waits achievement worry heaven For a songwriter, you dont really go to songwriting school; you learn by listening to tunes. Tom Waits tunes listening school Are you still jumping out of windows in expensive clothes? Tom Waits clothes jumping window Oh I don't mind going to weddings, just as long as it's not my own. Tom Waits wedding mind long Well I got a bad liver and broken heart, yeah,I drunk me a river since you tore me apart Tom Waits drunk heart rivers I knelt at the altar of Ray Charles for years. I worked at a restaurant, and that's all there was on the jukebox. Tom Waits jukebox rays years 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. Tom Waits marketing culture thinking When you're a kid and you're trying to find your own voice, it's rather daunting to hear somebody like Howlin' Wolf, because you know that you'll never achieve that. Tom Waits voice trying kids If you record the sound of bacon in a frying pan and play it back, it sounds like the pops and cracks on an old 33 1/3 recording. Almost exactly like that. You could substitute it for that sound. Tom Waits cracks sound play 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. Tom Waits want love-you pay If you're a writer you know that the stories don't come to you, you have to go looking for them. The old men in the lobby: that's where the stories were. Tom Waits old-man stories men The ship is sinking The ship is sinking There's leak, there's a leak,in the boiler room The poor, the lame, the blind Who ore the ones that we kept in charge Killers, thieves, and lawyers God's Away, God's away God's away on Business Tom Waits boiler-room lame thieves and when they pulled her from the wreck, you know, she still had on her shades Tom Waits wrecks shade stills
