Tom Waits Quotes

Since age seven, I've been composing and have never stopped composing, yet, the creative process is as elusive to me as it has ever been.

Everything I see and hear... I will take ideas from anyplace, anywhere, anytime, and life has become a song to me. I'm always looking for a song.

I still picture myself as a student of the music. I'm always trying to learn new things. Music is just what makes me tick.

Don't worry about what others say about your music. Pursue whatever you are hearing... but if everybody really hates your music maybe you could try some different approaches.

If I'm inspired and music inspires me, then I will continue to play it.

Thomas Dolby is part mad scientist, part nature boy, and entirely moved by the power of music.

I am a big fan of music in general. I listen to all genres: hip-hop, R&B, whatever sounds good to me; it doesn't matter to me where it comes from - there are no boundaries, no fences. If I like it, then it will inspire me to create.

Learning how to improvise really awakened my interest in music.

I learned that music should be fun and should be a way to express yourself - that there aren't really any rules.

With human beings it could be argued that all music-making is, in essence, grounded in improvisation.

I think you have to keep a childlike quality to play music or make a record.

I play piano and guitar and I do write my own stuff so to a certain extent I know what I want to do in regards to music. But I'm still finding out what kind of music is my favourite kind to listen to, never mind do myself so I've got a lot of time to find out myself and develop myself as an artist.

I hate labels; the problem is that if you say you're one thing, it's hard for people to imagine you as something else. Music is way more complicated than that.

You have got to make new music, that is the way that I look at it anyway.

I've always loved music and felt connected to it, but was too afraid to explore that avenue.

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

The combination of experience and experimentation will ultimately yield a personal sound.

Music is an art form that I love dearly, and it's allowed me to bring so many people together and meet so many people.

To me, a song is new every time I sing it.

Music fathoms the sky.

I needed to explore my talent and versatility and see if I had another side to me, another sound.

In terms of music, I can try anything I want, even something that doesn't work at all, because I'm not putting my career in jeopardy.

That's the kind of musical freedom I like: jazz, rock, blues, anything. You adopt different attitudes when you play different music.

One thing that sticks in my mind is that jazz means freedom and openness. It's a music that, although it developed out of the African American experience, speaks more about the human experience than the experience of a particular people.

I had no aspirations to be a musician, but I picked up a guitar for two seconds and haven't put it down since.