“Never have your wallet with you onstage. It's bad luck. You shouldn't play the piano with money in your pocket. Play like you need the money.Tom Waits (to me, about 1986 or so)”

“Your old home town's so far away, but inside your head there's a record that's playing, a song called 'Hold On”

“This is about all the bad days in the world. I used to have some little bad days, and I kept them in a little box. And one day, I threw them out into the yard. "Oh, it's just a couple little innocent bad days." Well, we had a big rain. I don't know what it was growing in but I think we used to put eggshells out there and coffee grounds, too. Don't plant your bad days. They grow into weeks. The weeks grow into months. Before you know it you got yourself a bad year. Take it from me. Choke those little bad days. Choke 'em down to nothin'. They're your days. Choke 'em!”

“when your down on your luck and you've lost all your dreams theres nothing like a campfire and a can of beans”

“bringing up children was]like living with a bunch of drunks...you really have to be on your toes all the time.”

“The piano has been drinking, not me.”

“They say that I have no hits and that I'm difficult to work with. And they say that like it's a bad thing.”