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
So the crew fly on with no thought that they are in motion. Like night over the sea, they are very far from the earth, from towns, from trees. The clock ticks on. The dials, the radio lamps, the various hands and needles go though their invisible alchemy. . . . and when the hour is at hand the pilot may glue his forehead to the window with perfect assurance. Out of oblivion the gold has been smelted: there it gleams in the lights of the airport.
I think there is a tendency for people to get rigid and caught up in their beliefs of what is right and wrong, and they lose sight of humanity. Being human has to come first before right or wrong.
My dad said, 'In school, be a Catholic. At home, be a Hindu.' So we did both.
And so it is, that both the Devil and the angelic Spirit present us with objects of desire to awaken our power of choice.
War is mankind's most tragic and stupid folly; to seek or advise its deliberate provocation is a black crime against all men.
Down in Denver, all I did was die.