Bob Dylan Quotes

Today, the medium contains multitudes and man needs only pick one thing he likes and feast exclusively on a stream dedicated to it. There’s twenty-four hours of blues, surf music, left-wing whining, right-wing badgering, any stripe of belief imaginable. There are stories as interesting as lemming suicides and totally true, like the fact that whale songs have inexplicably lowered in pitch 30 percent since the sixties. But these stories are buried on animal documentary channels, where they will probably never capture the general public’s imagination.

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

Sometimes people ask songwriters what a song means, not realizing if they had more words to explain it they would’ve used them in the song.

I kinda live where I find myself.

You say you love me and you're thinking of me, but you know you might be wrong.

Stop all this weeping, swallow your pride, you will not die, it's not poison

I wanted just a song to sing, and there came a certain point where I couldn't sing anything. So I had to write what I wanted to sing 'cos nobody else was writing what I wanted to sing.

Music is truthful… Music attracts the angels in the universe.

Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth
"Rip down all hate," I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull.

May God bless and keep you always,
May your wishes all come true,
May you always do for others
And let others do for you.
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung,
May you stay forever young,

Q: Is it still possible nowadays to influence the world by songs? To be political by means of messages?

A: No, there are newspapers for that. When people want to deal with the world, they should watch television.

Q: That's very passive.

A: The world has become like that. People are going to the football stadium, they don't play themselves anymore.

Q: Did you ever think you could be politically active through your songs?

A: No, no, no. If I had wanted to do that, I would have gone to Harvard or Yale, would have studied and would have a become a politician after that.

I think the truly natural things are dreams, which nature cannot touch with decay

Well, I try my best
To be just like I am
But everybody wants you
To be just like them

By combining certain elements of technique which ignite each other I could shit the levels of perception, time-frame structures and systems of rythm which would give my songs a brighter countenance, call them up from the grave [...] It was like parts of my psyche were being communicated to by angels. There was a big fire in the fireplace and the wind was making it roar.

I can hear the turning of the key
I’ve been deceived by the clown inside of me
I thought that he was righteous but he’s vain
Oh, something’s a-telling me I wear the ball and chain

My patron saint is a-fighting with a ghost
He’s always off somewhere when I need him most