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
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Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.
Wind back the tape of life to the early days of the Burgess Shale; let it play again from an identical starting point, and the chance becomes vanishingly small that anything like human intelligence would grace the replay.
As long as a person is involved with warfare, trying to defend or attack, then his action is not sacred; it is mundane, dualistic, a battlefield situation.
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV