I’ve never met anyone who made it with a chick because they owned a Tom Waits album. I’ve got all three, and it’s never helped me.
God’s away, God’s away, God’s away on business. Business!
All that you’ve loved is all you own.
We are buried beneath the weight of information...
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.
You just write and you don’t try to make sense of it. You just put it down the way you got it.
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.
I think some bands thrive on the idea of changing instruments. When they’re off their real instrument, the ability to go very far from the original idea is reduced.
I finally discovered that my life is more important than show business.
I like writing melody without an instrument. It’s just so – it’s more like the choreography of a bee; you just go.
It’s terrible for the culture of music. Like anything that is purely economic, it ignores the most important component.
I like vocal word stuff. But I don’t always write with an instrument, I usually write a capella. It’s more like drawing in the air with your fingers. It’s closest to the choreography of a bee. You’re freer.
I don’t know what the ‘big time’ is.
Words are music, really.
New York forces you to be in endless surreal situations.
Sometimes when you’re making songs you just make sounds, and the sounds slowly mutate and evolve into actual words that have meaning.
With families and music, you’re usually looking for something that can make you unique.
I’m not one of those people the tabloids chase around.
The average person spends two weeks over their lifetime waiting for the traffic light to change.
I’m trying to get music ideas that come and keep them alive. It’s like carrying water in your hands. I want to keep it all, and sometimes by the time you get to the studio you have nothing.
The blues and gospel stuff seemed to go together.