American - Musician | December 7, 1949 -
Don't you know there ain't no devil, it's just god when he's drunk.
Tom Waits
GodDevilYouDrunkKnowJust
The blues is like a planet. It's an enormous topic. You can't ignore the impact that it has had and continues to have on the whole musical culture. It's a tree that everyone is swinging from. Without it, I don't know where I would be. It's indelible and indispensable.
TreeCultureImpactIgnoreYouKnow
I guess I've always lived upside down when I want things I can't have.
Upside DownDownWantAlwaysLived
My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane.
ImaginationManBlindRealityLike
I saw a crow building a nest, I was watching him very carefully, I was kind of stalking him and he was aware of it. And you know what they do when they become aware of someone stalking them when they build a nest, which is a very vulnerable place to be? They build a decoy nest. It's just for you.
BuildingSomeoneYouPlaceKnow
If you're in the middle of the ocean with no flippers and no life preserver and you hear a helicopter, this is music. You have to adjust to your needs at the moment.
LifeMusicMomentOceanYouAdjust
We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness.
HappinessKnowledgeConfusedWealth
I think I have an adrenaline addiction, no question about that.
ThinkAddictionQuestionAdrenaline
Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends.
PainFriendsRealChampagneSham
Songs really are like a form of time travel because they really have moved forward in a bubble. Everyone who's connected with it, the studio's gone, the musicians are gone, and the only thing that's left is this recording which was only about a three-minute period maybe 70 years ago.
TimeTravelForwardMusiciansBubble
All records are riddles, and whatever you may want people to think it's about, it may just be throwing them off. And you don't want it to get in the way of what someone else's understanding is. It's not really about anything. At the same time, it will find some meaning.
TimePeopleThinkUnderstandingYou
When you're writing, you're conjuring. It's a ritual, and you need to be brave and respectful and sometimes get out of the way of whatever it is that you're inviting into the room.
BraveWritingYouSometimesWayOut
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