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" I do like books on anatomy. I have to say I'm an amateur physician, I guess. "
Tom Waits
Books
Like
Physician
Related Quotes:
" Don't you know there ain't no devil, it's just god when he's drunk. "
Tom Waits
Just
God
Drunk
" 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. "
Tom Waits
Think
Difference
I Am
" 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. "
Tom Waits
Music
Together
Think
" You know what I really love? The CD players in a car. How when you put the CD right up by the slot, it actually takes it out of your hand, like it's hungry. It pulls it in, and you feel like it wants more silver discs. "
Tom Waits
You
Feel
Hungry
" I'm usually more concerned with how things sound than how they look on the page. Some people write for the page, and that's a whole other thing. I'm going for what it sounds like right away, so it may not even look good on the page. "
Tom Waits
People
Some People
Page
" We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. "
Tom Waits
Happiness
Being
Information
" Most songs that aren't jump-rope songs, or lullabies, are cautionary tales or goodbye songs and road songs. "
Tom Waits
Goodbye
Most
Road
" You almost have to create situations in order to write about them, so I live in a constant state of self-imposed poverty. I don't want to live any other way. "
Tom Waits
You
Create
Way
" I always liked the idea that America is a big facade. We are all insects crawling across on the shiny hood of a Cadillac. We're all looking at the wrapping. But we won't tear the wrapping to see what lies beneath. "
Tom Waits
See
America
Always
" Music has generally involved a lot of awkward contraptions, a certain amount of heavy lifting. "
Tom Waits
Music
Heavy
Involved
" I'd rather have a free bottle in front of me than a prefrontal lobotomy. "
Tom Waits
Rather
Than
Free
" It's hard to win when you always lose. "
Tom Waits
You
Hard
Always
" Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends. "
Tom Waits
Sham
Real
Pain
" My first big gig was an opening show for Frank Zappa, and I think that was difficult. "
Tom Waits
Show
Think
Opening
" I have an audio stigmatism whereby I hear things wrong - I have audio illusions. "
Tom Waits
Audio
Wrong
Illusions
" You hope people are going to be listening to you after you're gone. And they like you better after you're gone. "
Tom Waits
Listening
Better
Hope
" I don't know if any genuine, meaningful change could ever result from a song. It's kind of like throwing peanuts at a gorilla. "
Tom Waits
Change
Kind
Know
" Writing songs is like capturing birds without killing them. Sometimes you end up with nothing but a mouthful of feathers. "
Tom Waits
End
Birds
Feathers
" Songs really are like a form of time travel because they really have moved forward in a bubble. Everyone who's connected with it, the studio's gone, the musicians are gone, and the only thing that's left is this recording which was only about a three-minute period maybe 70 years ago. "
Tom Waits
Time
Musicians
Travel
" When I was younger, I wanted to be older. Now I am older, I am not quite so sure. "
Tom Waits
Now
I Am
Older
" People say all kinds of things about the ingredients of songs. But you know they are a kind of magic, in the sense that they may easily include a stain on your bedroom wall... and a variety of mis-recollections. And then you name it after a girl's name that you just made up. "
Tom Waits
You
Girl
Know
" 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. "
Tom Waits
You
Truth
Long
" I don't like the word 'poetry,' and I don't like poetry readings, and I usually don't like poets. I would much prefer describing myself and what I do as: I'm kind of a curator, and I'm kind of a night-owl reporter. "
Tom Waits
Kind
Word
Poetry
" The blues is like a planet. It's an enormous topic. You can't ignore the impact that it has had and continues to have on the whole musical culture. It's a tree that everyone is swinging from. Without it, I don't know where I would be. It's indelible and indispensable. "
Tom Waits
Ignore
Culture
Impact
" Any image I have, it's just what I do, but it comes off as being very pretentious. When you're a bit in the public astigmatism, anything you do seems like you did it so somebody would see you do it, like showing up at the right parties. "
Tom Waits
See
Right
You
" I guess I've always lived upside down when I want things I can't have. "
Tom Waits
Want
Always
Down
" I look for things that are left of center, something you've only seen your whole life, but never heard. Hit it! With a stick! I have a guitar made out of a 2x4 that I bought in Cleveland. "
Tom Waits
Look
Never
Left
" I used to think that all great recordings happened at about 3 A.M. "
Tom Waits
Happened
Used
Think
" 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. "
Tom Waits
Jazz
Appreciation
Think
" If you're in the middle of the ocean with no flippers and no life preserver and you hear a helicopter, this is music. You have to adjust to your needs at the moment. "
Tom Waits
You
Adjust
Life