1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan Quotes
page 8

Robert Dylan is an American singer, songwriter, musician, painter, and writer. He has been influential in popular music and culture for more than five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when he became a reluctant "voice of a generation" with songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'", which became anthems for the Civil Rights Movement and anti-war movement. Leaving behind his initial base in the American folk music revival, his six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone", recorded in 1965, enlarged the range of popular music.

Dylan's lyrics incorporate a wide range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture. Initially inspired by the performances of Little Richard and the songwriting of Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, and Hank Williams, Dylan has amplified and personalized musical genres. His recording career, spanning more than 50 years, has explored the traditions in American song—from folk, blues, and country to gospel, rock and roll, and rockabilly to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and the Great American Songbook. Dylan performs with guitar, keyboards, and harmonica. Backed by a changing lineup of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour. His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career, but his songwriting is considered his greatest contribution. Since 1994, Dylan has also published seven books of drawings and paintings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries.

As a musician, Dylan has sold more than 100 million records, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time. He has also received numerous awards including eleven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award. Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Pulitzer Prize jury in 2008 awarded him a special citation for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power." In May 2012, Dylan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama. In 2016, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".

✵ 24. May 1941  •  Other names بوب ديلون
Bob Dylan photo
Bob Dylan: 523 quotes51 likes

Bob Dylan Quotes

“We're going all the way, till the wheels fall off and burn, till the sun peels the paint and the seat covers fade and the water moccasins die.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Knocked Out Loaded (1986), Brownsville Girl (with Sam Shepard)

“The rifleman's stalking the sick and the lame; preacherman seeks the same. Who'll get there first is uncertain.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Infidels (1983), Jokerman

“I'm a poet, and I know it.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964), I Shall Be Free No. 10

“Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
And where have you been, my darling young one?”

Bob Dylan

Compare: "O where ha' you been, Lord Randal, my son? And where ha' you been, my handsome young man?" Lord Randall, no. 12.
Song lyrics, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall

“I know it looks like I'm moving, but I'm standing still
Every nerve in my body is so vacant and numb
I can't even remember what it was I came here to get away from”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Time Out of Mind (1997), Not Dark Yet

“But these visions of Johanna, they make it all seem so cruel.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Blonde on Blonde (1966), Visions of Johanna

“You got some big dreams, baby, but in order to dream you gotta still be asleep.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Slow Train Coming (1979), When You Gonna Wake Up

“Well, if you, my love, must think that-a-way,
I'm sure your mind is roamin'.
I'm sure your heart is not with me,
But with the country to where you're goin'.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964), Boots of Spanish Leather

“In the dime stores and bus stations,
People talk of situations,
Read books repeat quotations,
Draw conclusions on the wall.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Love Minus Zero/No Limit

“When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Slow Train Coming (1979), When You Gonna Wake Up

“Throw my ticket out the window,
Throw my suitcase out there too,
Throw my troubles out the door, I don't need them anymore,
'Cause tonight I'll be staying here with you.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Nashville Skyline (1969), Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You

“Well I tried my best to be just like I am, but everybody wants you to be just like them”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, The Essential Bob Dylan (2000), Maggie's Farm

“The vagabond who's rapping at your door,
Is standing in the clothes that you once wore,
Strike another match, go start anew!
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

“Try imagining a place where it's always safe and warm…”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Blood on the Tracks (1975), Shelter from the Storm

“While others say don't hate nothing at all
Except hatred”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

“I lived with them on Montague Street
In a basement down the stairs
There was music in the cafes at night
And revolution in the air.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Blood on the Tracks (1975), Tangled Up In Blue

“Freedom just around the corner for you, but with truth so far off, what good will it do?”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Infidels (1983), Jokerman

“And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead”

Bob Dylan

Source: Song lyrics, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), Masters of War

“Somebody's got to cry some tears, I guess it must be up to me.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Biograph (1985), Up to Me (recorded 1974)

“He could be standing next to you, the person that you notice least.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Infidels (1983), Man of Peace

“I once held her in my arms,
She said she would always stay,
But I was cruel, I treated her like a fool,
I threw it all away.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Nashville Skyline (1969), I Threw It All Away

“I'm sick of love but I'm in the thick of it.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Time Out of Mind (1997), Love Sick

“God, I'm glad I'm not me.”

Bob Dylan

Said when reading a newspaper article about himself in Dont Look Back (1967)
Variant: God, I'm glad I'm not me.

“You have to be let alone to really accomplish anything.”

Bob Dylan

Interview by Hubert Saal, "Dylan is Back," Newsweek (26 February 1968)

“Reporter: How many people who labor in the same musical vineyard in which you toil - how many are protest singers? That is, people who use their music, and use the songs to protest the, uh, social state in which we live today: the matter of war, the matter of crime, or whatever it might be.
Bob Dylan: Um…how many?
Reporter: Yes. How many?
Bob Dylan: Uh, I think there's about, uh…136.
Reporter: You say about 136, or you mean exactly 136?
Bob Dylan: Uh, it's either 136 or 142.”

Bob Dylan

Press conference in Los Angeles, California (17 December 1965), as seen and heard in No Direction Home.

“You're an idiot, babe. It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Blood on the Tracks (1975), Idiot Wind

“The people in my songs are all me.”

Bob Dylan

"Bob Dylan Sounds Off On The Origin Of His New Record, Parlor Music, Dr. Dre, And Who His Songs Are About" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/19/bob-dylan-interview-revea_n_188782.html, Huffington Post (20 May 2009)

“There's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Love Minus Zero/No Limit

“And you say, Oh my God, am I here all alone?”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Highway 61 Revisited (1965), Ballad of a Thin Man

“I hurt easy, I just don't show it, you can hurt someone and not even know it”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, The Essential Bob Dylan (2000), Things Have Changed (recorded 1999)

“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, both of their futures so full of dread.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Infidels (1983), Jokerman

“Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece the hollow horn
Plays wasted words, proves to warn
That he not busy being born is busy dying”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

“I can hear another drum beating for the dead that rise, whom Nature's beast fears as they come.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Empire Burlesque (1985), Dark Eyes

“All that foreign oil controlling American soil. Look around you, it's just bound to make you embarrassed: sheiks walking around like kings, wearing fancy jewels and nose rings, deciding America's future from Amsterdam and to Paris.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Slow Train Coming (1979), Slow Train

“All the money you made will never buy back your soul.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), Masters of War

“We live in a political world
Where mercy walks the plank,
Life is in mirrors, death disappears
Up the steps into the nearest bank.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Oh Mercy (1989), Political World

“There’s seven people dead
On a South Dakota farm
Somewhere in the distance
There's seven new people born”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964), Ballad of Hollis Brown

“Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

“Capitalism is above the law; it's said it don't count 'less it sells.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Infidels (1983), Union Sundown

“Yes, and how many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died?”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), Blowin' in the Wind

“Sometimes you say things in songs even if there's a small chance of them being true. And sometimes you say things that have nothing to do with the truth of what you want to say and sometimes you say things that everyone knows to be true. Then again, at the same time, you're thinking that the only truth on earth is that there is no truth on it. Whatever you are saying, you're saying in a ricky-tick way. There's never time to reflect. You stitched and pressed and packed and drove, is what you did.”

Bob Dylan

Source: Chronicles: Vol. One (2004), p. 220

“Well, God is in His heaven
And we all want what's his
But power and greed and corruptible seed
Seem to be all that there is
I'm gazing out the window
Of the St. James Hotel
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991 (1991), Blind Willie McTell (recorded 1983)

“Opportunities may come along for you to convert something—something that exists into something that didn't yet.”

Bob Dylan

Source: Chronicles: Vol. One (2004), p. 51

“I could hold you for a million years”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Time Out of Mind (1997), Make You Feel My Love

“And there are no truths outside the Gates of Eden.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Gates of Eden

“If your memory serves you well, I remember you're the one who called out me to call out them to get your business done.
And after every plan has failed, and there was nothing left to tell, well you knew that we shall meet again if your memory serves you well.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, The Basement Tapes (1975), This Wheel's on Fire (recorded in 1967)

“Fools glorify themselves, trying to manipulate Satan.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Slow Train Coming (1979), Slow Train

“I might need a good lawyer, could be your funeral, my trial
Well, I cried for you, now it's your turn, you can cry awhile”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Love and Theft (2001), Cry A While

“The enemy I see wears a cloak of decency.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Slow Train Coming (1979), Slow Train

“He's a pinboy. He also wears suspenders. He's a real person. You know him, but not by that name… I saw him come into the room one night and he looked like a camel. He proceeded to put his eyes in his pocket. I asked this guy who he was and he said, "That's Mr. Jones." Then I asked this cat, "Doesn't he do anything but put his eyes in his pocket?" And he told me, "He puts his nose on the ground."”

Bob Dylan

It's all there, it's a true story.
When asked about the meaning of the song "Ballad of a Thin Man" during a 1965 interview.