Quotes from Tom Waits

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

I've seen it all through the yellow windows of the evening train...

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...

I've never been a fan of personality-conflict burgers and identity-crisis omelets with patchouli oil. I function very well on a diet that consists of Chicken Catastrophe and Eggs Overwhelming and a tall, cool Janitor-in-a-Drum. I like to walk out of a restaurant with enough gas to open a Mobil station.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

There's no prayer like desire.

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

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

Don't plant your bad days. They grow into weeks. The weeks grow into months. Before you know it, you got yourself a bad year. Take it from me - choke those little bad days. Choke 'em down to nothing.

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

The Music was like Electric Sugar

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

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

when your down on your luck and you've lost all your dreams theres nothing like a campfire and a can of beans

She's got the whole dark forest living inside of her.

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.

There's nothing more embarrassing than a person who tries to guess what the great American public would like, makes a compromise for the first time, and falls flat on his face… I would rather be a failure on my own terms than a success on someone else's. That's a difficult statement to live up to, but then I've always believed that the way you affect your audience is more important than how many of them are there.

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.