If people are a little nervous about approaching you at the market, it's good. I'm not Chuckles The Clown. Or Bozo. I don't cut the ribbon at the opening of markets. I don't stand next to the mayor. Hit your baseball into my yard, and you'll never see it again.
Tom WaitsI used to imagine that making it in music - really making it in music - is if you're an old man going by a schoolyard and you hear children singing your songs, playing jump-rope, or on the swings. That's the ultimate. You're in the culture.
Tom WaitsThereโs nothing more embarrassing than a person who tries to guess what the great American public would like, makes a compromise for the first time, and falls flat on his faceโฆ I would rather be a failure on my own terms than a success on someone elseโs. Thatโs a difficult statement to live up to, but then Iโve always believed that the way you affect your audience is more important than how many of them are there.
Tom Waits