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
We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. We are monkeys with money and guns.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques society's obsession with information and material wealth, suggesting that true knowledge and happiness are often overlooked.
Tom Waits' quote reflects the chaos of modern life, where the sheer volume of information is mistaken for genuine understanding. It highlights a disturbing trend where material wealth is equated with happiness, while in reality, both knowledge and true contentment are far more nuanced and often ignored amidst the noise of consumerism and superficial pursuits.
Themes
InformationKnowledgeWealthHappinessSocietyConsumerism
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the impact of social media on knowledge acquisition.
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.
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I knelt at the altar of Ray Charles for years. I worked at a restaurant, and that's all there was on the jukebox.
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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.
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My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane.
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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
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