Famous quotes by »

Tom Waits

Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, composer, and actor. His lyrics often focus on the underbelly of society and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He worked primarily in jazz during the 1970s, but his music since the 1980s has reflected greater influence from blues, rock, vaudeville, and experimental genres.

Update this biography »
Complete biography of Tom Waits »

1 fan

Sort by:PopularityA - Z

Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends.

Rate it:

I'd rather have a free bottle in front of me than a prefrontal lobotomy.

Rate it:

No matter how long it takes, true love is always worth the wait.

Rate it:

The folks who know the truth aren't talking.... The ones who don't have a clue, you can't shut them up!

Rate it:

The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering.

Rate it:

A gentleman is someone who can play the accordion, but doesn't.

Rate it:

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.

Rate it:

Don't look back, because someone might be gaining on you.

Rate it:

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 nothing.

Rate it:

For a songwriter, you don't really go to songwriting school; you learn by listening to tunes. And you try to understand them and take them apart and see what they're made of, and wonder if you can make one, too.

Rate it:

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.

Rate it:

I hate Disneyland. It primes our kids for Las Vegas.

Rate it:

I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.

Rate it:

I've been riding on the crest of a slump lately.

Rate it:

I’ve always been a word guy, I like weird words and I like American slang and all that and words that are no longer being used… I like to drag them out of the box and wave them around… this is an interesting one, it’s amazing how in addition to punctuation just a little pause in the wrong place can just completely transform the meaning of something.

Rate it:

Oh I don't mind going to weddings, just as long as it's not my own...

Rate it:

Oh, I'm not a percussionist, I just like to hit things.

Rate it:

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

Rate it:

The big print giveth and the small print taketh away.

Rate it:

The only thing worse than being in the Hall of Fame is not being in the Hall of Fame.

Rate it:

There's not much difference between what I appear to be on stage and what I am. I think people like that, that I'm not trying to pull a caper.

Rate it:

When I was younger, I wanted to be older. Now I am older, I am not quite so sure.

Rate it:

You can learn a lot about a woman by getting smashed with her.

Rate it:

You hope people are going to be listening to you after you're gone. And they like you better after you're gone.

Rate it:

George Burns was a Vaudeville performer I particularly loved.

Rate it:

I bark my voice out through a closed throat, pretty much. It's more, perhaps, like a dog in some ways. It does have its limitations, but I'm learning different ways to keep it alive.

Rate it:

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.

Rate it:

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.

Rate it:

Share your thoughts on Tom Waits's quotes with the community:

0 Comments

Notify me of new comments via email.

Quote of the Day Today's Quote | Archive

Would you like us to send you a FREE inspiring quote delivered to your inbox daily?

Citation

Use the citation below to add this author page to your bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"Tom Waits Quotes." Quotes.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 Dec. 2024. <https://www.quotes.net/authors/Tom+Waits+Quotes>.

Missing a quote of Tom Waits?

Know another good quote of Tom Waits? Don't keep it to yourself!

The Web's Largest Resource for

Famous Quotes & Sayings

A Member Of The STANDS4 Network

Our favorite collection of

Famous Authors

»

George Bernard Shaw
1856 - 1950
Martin Luther King, Jr.
1929 - 1968
Al Capone
1899 - 1947
Emily Dickinson
1830 - 1886
Edgar Allan Poe
1809 - 1849
William Shakespeare
1564 - 1616
Carl Gustav Jung
1875 - 1961

Browse Quotes.net

#A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Random New Quotes

Quiz

Are you a quotes master?

»

"Adventure is worthwhile in itself"

A Elizabeth Taylor

B Amelia Earhart

C Christopher Columbus

D Bear Grylls