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" 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
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" 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. "
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Want
Back
Feel
" I hate Disneyland. It primes our kids for Las Vegas. "
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Our
Kids
Hate
" The only thing worse than being in the Hall of Fame is not being in the Hall of Fame. "
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Hall
Fame
Being
" Writing songs is like capturing birds without killing them. Sometimes you end up with nothing but a mouthful of feathers. "
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End
Birds
Feathers
" Don't you know there ain't no devil, it's just god when he's drunk. "
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Just
God
Drunk
" I'd rather have a free bottle in front of me than a prefrontal lobotomy. "
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Rather
Than
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" 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. "
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See
America
Always
" I didn't really identify with the music of my own generation, but I was very curious about the music of others. "
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Music
My Own
Own
" My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane. "
Tom Waits
Like
Reality
Man
" 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
" I used to think that all great recordings happened at about 3 A.M. "
Tom Waits
Happened
Used
Think
" 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
" The big print giveth and the small print taketh away. "
Tom Waits
Big
Giveth
Print
" The piano has been drinking, not me. "
Tom Waits
Me
Drinking
Been
" Music has generally involved a lot of awkward contraptions, a certain amount of heavy lifting. "
Tom Waits
Music
Heavy
Involved
" If people are a little nervous about approaching you at the market, it's good. I'm not Chuckles The Clown. Or Bozo. I don't cut the ribbon at the opening of markets. I don't stand next to the mayor. Hit your baseball into my yard, and you'll never see it again. "
Tom Waits
Good
Baseball
People
" 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. "
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More
Music
Culture
" I don't really like listening to the radio so much. "
Tom Waits
Really
Radio
Like
" 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
" 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
" I didn't really want to be part of a clique or a niche. But I also was looking for my own voice, as a writer, y'know? And a world I could call my own. "
Tom Waits
My Own
Own
Looking
" 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
" 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
" Some day I'm gonna be gone and people will be listening to my songs and conjuring me up. In order for that to happen, you gotta put something of yourself in it. "
Tom Waits
Listening
Yourself
Up
" 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
" 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 do like books on anatomy. I have to say I'm an amateur physician, I guess. "
Tom Waits
Books
Like
Physician
" George Burns was a Vaudeville performer I particularly loved. "
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Performer
Burns
Loved
" Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends. "
Tom Waits
Sham
Real
Pain
" I think all songs should have weather in them. Names of towns and streets, and they should have a couple of sailors. I think those are just song prerequisites. "
Tom Waits
Song
Think
Streets