Things Tom Waits Has Taught Me

"Don't you know there ain't no Devil; that's just God when he's drunk."
 - "Heartattack & Vine"

"There's a lot of things in this world that you're gonna have no use for. And when you get blue, and you've lost all your dreams, there's nothin' like a campfire and a can of beans!"
 - "Lucky Day"

"The women all control the men with razors and with wrists."
 - "In the Colosseum"

"If you want money in your pocket and a top hat on your head, a hot meal on your table and a blanket on your bed, well, today is grey skies, tomorrow is tears. You'll have to wait 'til yesterday is here."
 - "Yesterday Is Here"

"All the good in the world you can put inside a thimble and still have room for you and me."
 - "Misery Is the River of the World"

 "So what's become of the little boys who run away from home? The world just keeps gettin' bigger, once you get out on your own."
  -  "On the Nickel"

"Uncle Biltmore and Uncle William made a million during World War Two. But they're tightwads, and they're cheapskates, and they'll never give a dime to you."
 - "Cemetary Polka"

"And all the rooms they smell like diesel and you take on the dreams of the ones who have slept here. ... And the girl behind the counter has a tattooed tear -- "One for every year he's away," she said. Such a crumbling beauty, ah there's nothing wrong with her that a hundred dollars won't fix."
 - "9th & Hennepin"

 "They're alive, they're awake while the rest of the world is asleep. Below the mine shaft roads it will all unfold. There's a world going on underground."
 - "Underground"



And, most importantly:

"Nothin' else matters in this whole wide world when you're in love with a Jersey girl."