Bob Dylan Quotes

all is phony.

Just give to me my gravestone
With it clearly carved upon:
"I'm a long time a-comin'
An' I'll be a long time gone"

Steal a little and they throw you in jail; steal a lot and they make you king.

The Harmonica is the world’s best-selling musical instrument. You’re welcome.

Oh, sister, am I not a brother to you
And one deserving of affection?
And is our purpose not the same on this earth
To love and follow his direction?
...
Oh, sister, when I come to knock on your door
Don't turn away, you'll create sorrow
Time is an ocean but it ends at the shore
You may not see me tomorrow

When you asked me how I was doing, was that some kind of joke

I can't help it if I'm lucky.

The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face.

I thought I had seen a face like Sun Pie’s before but couldn’t remember just where. He had an unusual way of talking…slow but with slam bang action words.

"You're A Big Girl Now"

Our conversation was short and sweet
It nearly swept me off-a my feet
And I'm back in the rain, oh, oh
And you are on dry land
You made it there somehow
You're a big girl now

Bird on the horizon, sitting on a fence
He's singing his song for me at his own expense
And I'm just like that bird, oh, oh
Singing just for you
I hope that you can hear
Hear me singing through these tears

Time is a jet plane, it moves too fast
Oh, but what a shame that all we've shared can't last
I can change, I swear, oh, oh
See what you can do
I can make it through
You can make it too

Love is so simple, to quote a phrase
You've known it all the time, I'm learning it these days
Oh, I know where I can find you, oh, oh
In somebody's room
It's a price I have to pay
You're a big girl all the way

A change in the weather is known to be extreme
But what's the sense of changing horses in midstream?
I'm going out of my mind, oh, oh
With a pain that stops and starts
Like a corkscrew to my heart
Ever since we've been apart

Bob Dylan, Blood On The Tracks (1975)

Bob Dylan: The media is all-pervasive. What can a writer think of to write that you don't see every day in a newspaper or on television?
Interviewer: ...Do you think that TV and the media have killed poetry and literature?
Bob Dylan: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. ... What's a writer to do if every idea is exposed in the media before he can get to it or let it evolve? What's a writer gonna write about? ... We're living in a science-fiction world. We're living in a world that Disney has conquered. Disney's science fiction. Theme parks, trendy streets, it's all science fiction. So I would say, if a writer has got something to say, he'll have to do it in that–
Interviewer: Outside of the real world?
Bob Dylan: There is a real world. Science fiction has become the real world. Whether we realize it or not, it has.

Another politician pumpin' out the piss.

Sundown, yellow moon, I replay the past
I know every scene by heart, they all went by so fast

The first thing that has to go is any form of artistic self-expression that's dear to you. Art is unimportant next to life, and you have no choice. I had no hunger for it, anyway. Creativity has much to do with experience, observation and imagination, and if any one of those key elements is missing, it doesn't work. It was impossible now for me to observe anything without being observed.

Took a stranger to teach me to look into justice's beautiful face, and to see an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.