Tom Waits
Not the kind of wheel you fall asleep at.Collection: Fall
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?Collection: Strong
If you can make a little painting for the ears with a few words, well, I like words; I like cutting them up and finding different ways of saying the same thing... I get into a spell, and it all comes easy. I don't labor over it. I go inside the song, I think you make yourself an antenna for songs, and songs want to be around you. And then they bring other songs along, and then they're all sitting around, and they're drinkin' your beer, and they're sleeping on the floor. And they are using the phone, they're rude, thankless little f---ers.Collection: Song
We have a deficit of wonder right now.Collection: Wonder
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.Collection: Fun
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 railsCollection: Night
It's rather mystifying when you think about writing songs - where they come from, and how they're born.Collection: Song
It was a hubba, hubba, ding dang, baby you are just everythang.Collection: Love
The devil knows the Bible like the back of his hand...Collection: Hands
Did the devil make the world while God was sleeping?Collection: Sleep
Well I got a bad liver and broken heart, yeah,I drunk me a river since you tore me apartCollection: Heart
I don't think that you should be perfectly candid and frank about the intimate details of your personal life with the public at large. Subsequently, it creates considerable personal problems.Collection: Thinking
I danced along a colored wind/ Dangled from a rope of sandCollection: Wind
I like Thelonious Monk, he's so gnarled, he's like a piece of machinery that's pulled up the bolts on the floor and gone off on its own.Collection: Art
I worry about a lot of things, but I don’t worry about achievements. I worry primarily about whether there are nightclubs in Heaven.Collection: Worry
I sold a quart of blood and bought a half a pint of scotchCollection: Scotch
Well, it's either kiss me or kill me, that's how I see it.Collection: Kissing
My friends think I'm ugly, I gotta masculine face.Collection: Thinking
Francis Ford Coppola is completely unconventional. He has a strong sense of loyalty. Great eyes. It's a diabolical undertaking in terms of organization and leadership.Collection: Loyalty
It wasn't good for my nerves, that kind of work - a fireman. I've got high blood pressure. I get upset easily. I don't think that was a proper career alternative for me.Collection: Thinking
Most changes in music, most exciting things that happen in music, occur through a miscommunication between people "I thought you said this." Poetry comes out of that too.Collection: People
They called it the Terminal Bar but they had no idea that like twenty years later the place'd be filling up with terminal cases.Collection: Filling Up
I don't know what the 'big time' is.Collection: Bigs
I'm trying to learn how to write faster.Collection: Writing
Got 27 children I never see.Collection: Children
I walked 500 miles just to see a halo, when I opened my eyes I was blind as can be.Collection: Eye
It's cold out there, colder than a ticket taker's smile at the Ivar Theatre on a Saturday night.Collection: Night
Some men are searching for the Holy Grail, but there ain't nothing sweeter than riding the rail. Pregnant women and Vietnam vets, beggin on the freeway, bout as hard as it gets.Collection: Men
Planes and Trains and Boats and Busses Characteristically Evolve a common attitude of blue Unless you have a suitcase and a ticket and a passport And the cargo that they're carrying is you.Collection: Attitude
It's terrible for the culture of music. Like anything that is purely economic, it ignores the most important component.Collection: Important
I hope I'm becoming more eccentric. More room in the brain.Collection: Brain
People make songs so that somebody else will hear them and want to do them. I guess it's an indication that the songs aren't so ultra-personal that they can't possibly be interpreted by anyone else.Collection: Song
The blues and gospel stuff seemed to go together.Collection: Together
and when they pulled her from the wreck, you know, she still had on her shadesCollection: Wrecks
Sometimes when you're making songs you just make sounds, and the sounds slowly mutate and evolve into actual words that have meaning.Collection: Song
Folks who work here are professors. Don't replace all the knowers with guessors keep'em open they're the ears of the townCollection: Ems
When it's raining you can't find enough things to catch it in. When it's not you can stand out in the middle of the street in a dress and a funny hat and nothing's gonna make it rain. I go through periods - or spells - when I'm more receptive.Collection: Rain
There's a place on my arm where I've written her name next to mine.Collection: Names
Jesus Christ, this godamn rain, will someone put me on a train.Collection: Jesus
I never looked at music as a serious venture. There was very little encouragement from my family. I didn't have anybody to entertain, so it was hard to get motivated.Collection: Encouragement
It's a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace, and a wound that will never heal. No prima donna, the perfume is on an old shirt that is stained with blood and whiskey. Goodnight to the street sweepers, the night watchmen flame keepers and goodnight, Matilda, too.Collection: Travel
I was a fireman. I lived in the fire station for about a year. The pay wasn't so good. It was kind of like being in the army, or what I imagine that would be like.Collection: Army
I've made a profound transformation. I've fashioned some cyber-underwear. I'm not scared of anything! Actually, I am scared of a few things. Cyber world is a world of adventure, a new galaxy. I'm big on adventure. But I don't assume that just because the word cyber is being used as a prefix, doesn't give it anymore value or credence. Cyber relationships have the illusion of intimacy, sometimes with the absence of intimacy. Is it better to have a conversation in a café or on the telephone?Collection: Adventure
You just write and you don't try to make sense of it. You just put it down the way you got it.Collection: Writing
Presley's what I go by, why don't you change the station.Collection: Stations
Disneyland is Vegas for children.Collection: Children
Well, they'll bark you down like carneys, sell you Christmas cards in June.Collection: Art