Bob Dylan: Quotes about thinking

Bob Dylan is American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist. Explore interesting quotes on thinking.

Bob Dylan: 1046 quotes51 likes

“An artist has gotta be careful never really to arrive at a place where he thinks he's at somewhere. You always have to realize that you're constantly in a state of becoming.”

No Direction Home (2005)

“I think it's the land. The streams, the forests, the vast emptiness. The land created me. I'm wild and lonesome. Even as I travel the cities, I'm more at home in the vacant lots. But I have a love for humankind, a love of truth, and a love of justice. I think I have a dualistic nature. I’m more of an adventurous type than a relationship type.”

London Times interview http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article6043331.ece (2009)

“It's not to anybody's best interest to think about how they will be perceived tomorrow. It hurts you in the long run.”

Bob Dylan: The Song Talk Interview http://www.interferenza.com/bcs/interw/1991zollo.htm by Paul Zollo (1991)

“Man thinks 'cause he rules the earth, he can do with it as he please. And if things don't change soon, he will.”

Song lyrics, Infidels (1983), License to Kill

“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'.”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“If your mem'ry serves you well, we were gonna meet again and wait, so I think I'll just unpack my bags and sit before it gets too late.
No man alive will come to you with another tale to tell, but you know that we shall meet again, if your mem'ry serves you well.”

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

“I think what I need might be a full-length leather coat
Somebody just asked me
If I registered to vote”

Song lyrics, Time Out of Mind (1997), Highlands

“Say for me that I'm all right though things get kind of slow
She might think that I've forgotten her don't tell her it isn't so.”

Song lyrics, Blood on the Tracks (1975), If You See Her, Say Hello

“Love is all there is, it makes the world go 'round
Love and only love, it can’t be denied
No matter what you think about it
You just won’t be able to do without it
Take a tip from one who's tried”

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

“When I first heard Elvis's voice I just knew that I wasn't going to work for anybody and nobody was going to be my boss. He is the deity supreme of rock and roll religion as it exists in today's form. Hearing him for the first time was like busting out of jail. I think for a long time that freedom to me was Elvis singing 'Blue Moon of Kentucky.”

I thank God for Elvis.
US magazine (24 August 1987); on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, as reported in Bob Dylan: Performing Artist 1986–1990 and Beyond, Mind out of Time (2009)

“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.”

The Rome Press Conference (23 July 2001)

“You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ear to hear
That somebody thinks they really found you”

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

“I used to think that myself and my songs were the same thing. But I don't believe that any more. There's myself and there's my song, which I hope is everybody's song.”

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

“At certain times I read a lot of poetry. My favorite poets are Shelley and Keats. Rimbaud is so identifiable. Lord Byron. I don't know. Lately if I read poems, it's like I can always hear the guitar. Even with Shakespeare's sonnets I can hear a melody because it's all broken up into timed phrases so I hear it. I always keep thinking, 'What kind of song would this be?”

Interview with Denise Worrell, "'It's All Right in Front': Dylan on Life and Rock" in Time Magazine (25 November 1985)

“Do you ever wonder just what God requires? You think he's just an errand boy to satisfy your wandering desires.”

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

“You must leave, now take what you need, You think will last.”

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