Tom Waits Quotes

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Tom Waits

Profession : Musician

Birth : December 7, 1949

Most people don't care if you're telling them the truth or if you're telling them a lie, as long as they're entertained by it.

Tom Waits

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

I bark my voice out through a closed throat, pretty much. It's more, perhaps, like a dog in some ways. It does have its limitations, but I'm learning different ways to keep it alive.

Tom Waits

I don't like listening to records a lot after they're done. There's just no real nourishment there for me.

Tom Waits

If you are recording, you are recording. I don't believe there is such a thing as a demo or a temporary vocal.

Tom Waits

I don't really like listening to the radio so much.

Tom Waits

There's not much difference between what I appear to be on stage and what I am. I think people like that, that I'm not trying to pull a caper.

Tom Waits

Any image I have, it's just what I do, but it comes off as being very pretentious. When you're a bit in the public astigmatism, anything you do seems like you did it so somebody would see you do it, like showing up at the right parties.

Tom Waits

I used to think that all great recordings happened at about 3 A.M.

Tom Waits

If you are making a record, you are the one saying 'action', and you are the one saying 'cut,' and you have to be sure that the most interesting thing is not going on outside the frame.

Tom Waits

I look for things that are left of center, something you've only seen your whole life, but never heard. Hit it! With a stick! I have a guitar made out of a 2x4 that I bought in Cleveland.

Tom Waits

I have a Chamberlain I bought from some surfers in Westwood many years ago. It's an early analog synthesizer; it operates on tape loops. It has 60 voices - everything from galloping horses to owls to rain to every instrument in the orchestra.

Tom Waits

I'm usually more concerned with how things sound than how they look on the page. Some people write for the page, and that's a whole other thing. I'm going for what it sounds like right away, so it may not even look good on the page.

Tom Waits

My first big gig was an opening show for Frank Zappa, and I think that was difficult.

Tom Waits

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

People say all kinds of things about the ingredients of songs. But you know they are a kind of magic, in the sense that they may easily include a stain on your bedroom wall... and a variety of mis-recollections. And then you name it after a girl's name that you just made up.

Tom Waits