Tom Waits citations

Page 2

“You got to tell me the brave captain
Why are the wicked so strong?
How do the angels get to sleep
When the devil leaves the porch light on?”

“We are all just monkeys with money and guns.”

“but it's so hard to dance that way when it's cold and there's no music.”

“Never have your wallet with you onstage. It's bad luck. You shouldn't play the piano with money in your pocket. Play like you need the money.
Tom Waits (to me, about 1986 or so)”

“Let me fall out of the window/
With confetti in my hair”

“The Universe is making music all the time.”

“The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.”

“When the weather's rough and it's whiskey in the rain it's best to wrap your savior up in cellophane.”

“Sing me a rainbow. Steal me a dream.”

“I've seen it all through the yellow windows of the evening train…”

“Most vagabonds i knowed don't ever want to find the culprit that remains the object of their long relentless quest. The obsession's in the chasing and not the apprehending, the pursuit you see and never the arrest" - Tom Waits "Foreign Affairs”

“Your old home town's so far away, but inside your head there's a record that's playing, a song called 'Hold On”

“slept all night in the cedar grove,
i was born to ramble, born to rove,
some men are searchin' for the holy grail,
but there ain't nothin' sweeter
than ridin' the rails”

“Well you say that it's gospel,
But I know that it's only church.”

“I walked 500 miles just to see a halo, when I opened my eyes I was blind as can be.”

“My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane.”

“Children make up the best songs, anyway. Better than grown-ups. Kids are always working on songs and throwing them away, like little origami things or paper airplanes. They don't care if they lose it; they'll just make another one.”

“There's no prayer like desire.”

“I admit that I ain't no angel, I admit that I ain't no saint-- I'm selfish and I'm cruel and I'm blind. If I exorcise my devils, well my angels may leave too. When they leave they're so hard to find…”

“The Music was like Electric Sugar”

“It's the same with men as with horses and dogs, nothing wants to die.”

“Got a head full of lightning, a hat full of rain.”

“and when they pulled her from the wreck, you know, she still had on her shades”

“I worry about a lot of things, but I don’t worry about achievements. I worry primarily about whether there are nightclubs in Heaven.”

“I danced along a colored wind/
Dangled from a rope of sand”

“I just don't like the word 'fun'--it's like Volkswagen, or bell-bottoms, or patchouli-oil or bean-sprouts… it rubs me up the wrong way.”

“It's cold out there, colder than a ticket taker's smile at the Ivar Theatre on a Saturday night.”

“bringing up children was]like living with a bunch of drunks… you really have to be on your toes all the time.”

“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”