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" I'm one of those guys that is still a bit afraid of the telephone, its implications for conversation. I still wonder if the jukebox might be the death of live music. "
Tom Waits
Conversation
Music
Wonder
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" I have an audio stigmatism whereby I hear things wrong - I have audio illusions. "
Tom Waits
Audio
Wrong
Illusions
" 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
" 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. "
Tom Waits
Time
Back
Cool
" I do like books on anatomy. I have to say I'm an amateur physician, I guess. "
Tom Waits
Books
Like
Physician
" 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
" My first big gig was an opening show for Frank Zappa, and I think that was difficult. "
Tom Waits
Show
Think
Opening
" 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
" 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
" Their memory's like a train: you can see it getting smaller as it pulls away And the things you can't remember Tell the things you can't forget that History puts a saint in every dream. "
Tom Waits
Memory
Remember
History
" All records are riddles, and whatever you may want people to think it's about, it may just be throwing them off. And you don't want it to get in the way of what someone else's understanding is. It's not really about anything. At the same time, it will find some meaning. "
Tom Waits
Think
People
Understanding
" Sometimes the magnetism of a song is impossible to ignore, and it demands that it be sung in a certain way. "
Tom Waits
Ignore
Way
Song
" 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
Sound
Back
Like
" The only thing worse than being in the Hall of Fame is not being in the Hall of Fame. "
Tom Waits
Hall
Fame
Being
" The sight of the first woman in the minimal two-piece was as explosive as the detonation of the atomic bomb by the U.S. at Bikini Island in the Marshall Isles, hence the naming of the bikini. "
Tom Waits
Island
Woman
Atomic Bomb
" I used to think that all great recordings happened at about 3 A.M. "
Tom Waits
Happened
Used
Think
" 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
" Oh, I got a beautiful 1959 Cadillac Coupe DeVille four-door. No one will ride in it with me. "
Tom Waits
Beautiful
Me
Ride
" I saw a crow building a nest, I was watching him very carefully, I was kind of stalking him and he was aware of it. And you know what they do when they become aware of someone stalking them when they build a nest, which is a very vulnerable place to be? They build a decoy nest. It's just for you. "
Tom Waits
Someone
You
Place
" Sometimes words are just music themselves. Like 'Chicago' is a very musical sounding name. "
Tom Waits
Music
Chicago
Name
" I didn't really identify with the music of my own generation, but I was very curious about the music of others. "
Tom Waits
Music
My Own
Own
" 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
" 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
" Somebody said I sound like an old lady, and I was really insulted by that. I'm trying to sound like Skip James and Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye. "
Tom Waits
Like
Trying
Sound
" George Burns was a Vaudeville performer I particularly loved. "
Tom Waits
Performer
Burns
Loved
" When you're writing, you're conjuring. It's a ritual, and you need to be brave and respectful and sometimes get out of the way of whatever it is that you're inviting into the room. "
Tom Waits
You
Brave
Need
" Music has generally involved a lot of awkward contraptions, a certain amount of heavy lifting. "
Tom Waits
Music
Heavy
Involved
" 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
" I'm so horny the crack of dawn better watch out. "
Tom Waits
Watch
Out
Horny
" Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends. "
Tom Waits
Sham
Real
Pain
" The piano has been drinking, not me. "
Tom Waits
Me
Drinking
Been