Quotes from Tom Waits

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

the earth is not my home, I'm just passing by

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

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.

Q: What's hard for you? A: Mostly I straddle reality and the imagination. My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane. Math is hard. Reading a map. Following orders. Carpentry. Electronics. Plumbing. Remembering things correctly. Straight lines. Sheet rock. Finding a safety pin. Patience with others. Ordering in Chinese. Stereo instructions in German.

All that you've loved is all you own

The piano has been drinking, not me.

The big print giveth and the small print taketh away.

And the things you can't remember tell the things you can't forget that history puts a saint in every dream.

I've lost my equilibrium, my car keys, and my pride.

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

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

I ain't got no spare/I ain't got no jack/I don't give a shit/I'm not going back

Time is just memory Mixed in with Desire.

It's very hard to stop doing things you're used to doing. You almost have to dismantle yourself and scatter it all around and then put a blindfold on and put it back together so that you avoid old habits.

They say that I have no hits and that I'm difficult to work with. And they say that like it's a bad thing.

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

We are all just monkeys with money and guns.

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)

The Universe is making music all the time.

Now its raining its pouring the old man is snoring now I lay me down to sleep I hear the sirens in the street all my dreams are made of chrome I have no way to get back home I'd rather die before I wake like Marilyn Monroe and throw my dreams out in the street and the rain make 'em grow

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.

The beginning of it starts at the end