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.
Tom WaitsRead
I don't know if any genuine, meaningful change could ever result from a song. It's kind of like throwing peanuts at a gorilla.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that the impact of a song on bringing about real change is minimal, akin to a futile effort.
Tom Waits uses a vivid metaphor to express skepticism about the ability of music to create significant, meaningful change in the world. He implies that the effort to provoke change through songs is as ineffective as throwing peanuts at a powerful gorilla, highlighting the struggle between artistic expression and the harsh realities of societal issues.
Themes
ChangeMusicImpactSocietyArt
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on the influence of culture, this quote can highlight the limitations of artistic expression in effecting real change.
More from Tom Waits
All quotes →If 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.
Tom WaitsRead
I knelt at the altar of Ray Charles for years. I worked at a restaurant, and that's all there was on the jukebox.
Tom WaitsRead
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.
Tom WaitsRead
My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane.
Tom WaitsRead
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 I’d rather die before I wake like Marilyn Monroe and throw my dreams out in the street and the rain make ‘em grow
Tom WaitsRead
Similar quotes
I asked all of our recruiters to give me all resumes of prospective employees with their name, gender, place of origin, and age blacked out. This simple change shocked me, because I found myself interviewing different-looking candidates - even though I was 100% convinced that I was not being biased in my resume selection process.
Eric RiesRead
Here in Georgia, we continue to grapple with our own vestiges of hate. The image carved into Stone Mountain, like Confederate monuments across this state, stand as constant reminders of racism, intolerance, and division.
Stacey AbramsRead
The abolition and suffrage movements progressed when united and were damaged by division; we should remember that.
Gloria SteinemRead
let the wind change direction a little bit, and their cries turned to whispers.
Haruki MurakamiRead
Even the simplest choice can make a jaw-dropping difference in our world.
Tom HanksRead
We all think we’re going to be great and we feel a little bit robbed when our expectations aren’t met. But sometimes our expectations sell us short. Sometimes the expected simply pales in comparison to the unexpected. You got to wonder why we cling to our expectations, because the expected is just what keeps us steady. Standing. Still. The expected's just the beginning, the unexpected is what changes our lives.
Shonda RhimesRead