As a kid, I did want to be an old-timer, since they were the ones with the big stories and the cool clothes. I wanted to go there. Now, I guess I want to bring that with me and go back in time. – Tom Waits
But then Im one of those guys that is still a bit afraid of the telephone, its implications for conversation. I still wonder if the jukebox might be the death of live music. – Tom Waits
My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane. – Tom Waits
Songs really are like a form of time travel because they really have moved forward in a bubble. Everyone whos connected with it, the studios gone, the musicians are gone, and the only thing thats left is this recording which was only about a three-minute period maybe 70 years ago. – Tom Waits
All sounds are sharper in winter; the air transmits better. At night I hear more distinctly the steady roar of the North Mountain. In summer it is a sort of complacent purr, as the breezes stroke down its sides; but in winter always the same low, sullen growl. – John Burroughs, “The Snow-Walkers,” 1866