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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of adapting to critical situations and recognizing helpful resources when they appear.
Tom Waits uses the metaphor of being stranded in the ocean to illustrate the idea that in dire circumstances, we must prioritize our immediate needs and respond to opportunities that come our way. The ‘music’ of a helicopter symbolizes hope and assistance, highlighting the necessity of being aware and adaptable when faced with challenges.
Themes
AdaptationOpportunityHopeSurvivalChange
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a motivational speech about overcoming adversity.
More from Tom Waits
All quotes →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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You can drive out nature with a pitch fork_x000D_ But it always comes roaring back again.
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