“Just you and your binoculars and a stupid look on your face…”

It’s a bit like taking a pill. If you’re doing it right, there’s nothing in the world that’s as thrilling.

Songs are really simple. You hold them in your hand. I can make one right now and finish it. But because they’re so simple, it’s like birdwatching, you know. You gotta know something about birds or you won’t see anything: just you and your binoculars and a stupid look on your face.

You have to make yourself some kind of an antenna for the songs to come to you. So you have to make yourself a kind of musical yourself. You have to be of music and have music in you—some way for songs to continue to want to live in you, in or near you. You gotta be real quiet sometimes if you wanna catch the big ones.

—Tom Waits