Bob Dylan: Quotes about time

Bob Dylan is American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist. Explore interesting quotes on time.
Bob Dylan: 1046 quotes51 likes

“Don't turn away, you'll create sorrow,
Time is an ocean but it ends at the shore,
You may not see me tomorrow.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Desire (1976), Oh, Sister

“Time is short and the days are sweet and passion rules the arrow that flies.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Empire Burlesque (1985), Dark Eyes

“How many times must a man look up before he can see the sky?”

Bob Dylan

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

“Take me disappearing, through the smoke rings of my mind, down the foggy ruins of time…”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Mr. Tambourine Man

“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

“Like Shakespeare, I too am often occupied with the pursuit of my creative endeavors and dealing with all aspects of life's mundane matters. "Who are the best musicians for these songs?" "Am I recording in the right studio?" "Is this song in the right key?" Some things never change, even in 400 years. Not once have I ever had the time to ask myself, "Are my songs literature?" So, I do thank the Swedish Academy, both for taking the time to consider that very question, and, ultimately, for providing such a wonderful answer.”

Bob Dylan

Nobel Banquet Speech

“Jan had told him many times "it was you to me who taught:
in Jersey anything's legal as long as you don't get caught"”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 (1988), Tweeter and the Monkey Man

“Oh all the money that in my whole life I did spend
Be it mine right or wrongfully
I let it slip gladly past the hands of my friends
To tie up the time most forcefully”

Bob Dylan

Compare: "Of all the money e'er I had, I spent it in good company. And all the harm e'er I've done, Alas! it was to none but me." The Parting Glass.
Song lyrics, The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964), Restless Farewell

“The one was Texas medicine. the other was just railroad gin. And, like a fool, I mixed them and it strangled up my mind and now people just get uglier and I have no sense of time.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Blonde on Blonde (1966), Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again

“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.”

Bob Dylan

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)

“Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail,
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder,
That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind,
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind,
An’ the poet and the painter far behind his rightful time
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964), Chimes of Freedom

“They tell you "Time is money," as if your life was worth its weight in gold.”

Bob Dylan

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

“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?”

Bob Dylan

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

“Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown.
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin.'”

Bob Dylan

Source: Song lyrics, The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964), The Times They Are A-Changin