When you're writing, you're conjuring. It's a ritual, and you need to be brave and respectful and sometimes get out of the way of whatever it is that you're inviting into the room.
Don't you know there ain't no devil, it's just god when he's drunk.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that what we perceive as evil may often be a misinterpretation of a higher power's actions due to our limited understanding.
Tom Waits' quote reflects on the duality of good and evil, proposing that our perceptions of devilish acts might stem from the chaotic and unpredictable nature of the divine. By suggesting that 'there ain't no devil,' Waits implies that the complexities of life can distort our view of morality, making us question the intentions behind seemingly malevolent actions. This viewpoint challenges us to consider a broader perspective on existence and the nature of suffering and joy.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a philosophical discussion on morality, one might mention this quote to illustrate the complexity of good and evil.
More from Tom Waits
All quotes βIf you're in the middle of the ocean with no flippers and no life preserver and you hear a helicopter, this is music. You have to adjust to your needs at the moment.
I knelt at the altar of Ray Charles for years. I worked at a restaurant, and that's all there was on the jukebox.
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 nothing.
My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane.
Now its raining its pouring the old man is snoring now I lay me down to sleep I hear the sirens in the street all my dreams are made of chrome I have no way to get back home Iβd rather die before I wake like Marilyn Monroe and throw my dreams out in the street and the rain make βem grow
Similar quotes
Pundits are always blaming TV for making people stupid, movies for desensitizing the world to violence, and rock music for making kids take drugs and kill themselves. These things should be the least of our worries. The main problem with mass media is that it makes it impossible to fall in love with any acumen of normalcy. There is no 'normal,' because everybody is being twisted by the same sources simultaneously.
If a coin comes down heads, that means that the possibility of its coming down tails has collapsed. Until that moment the two possibilities were equal. But on another world, it does come down tails. And when that happens, the two worlds split apart.
History is a living whole. If one organ be removed, it is nothing but a lifeless mass.
Life's meaning has always eluded me and I guess always will. But I love it just the same.
They put the thing down your throat so you don't swallow your tongue, and they put electrodes on your head. That's what was recommended in Rockland State Hospital to discourage homosexual feelings. The effect is that you lose your memory and become a vegetable. You can't read a book because you get to page 17 and have to go right back to page one again.
That's the day's business. Thinking. Thinking and isolation, because it doesn't matter if you pass the time of day with someone or not; in the end, you're alone. He seemed to have put in as many miles in his brain as he had with his feet. The thoughts kept coming and there was no way to deny them.