Bob Dylan Quotes

I like spiritual songs. They struck me as truthful and serious. They brought me down to earth and they lifted me up all in the same moment. ~ Bob Dylan

A cat's meow and cow's moo, I can recite them all. ~ Bob Dylan

Jesus tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'Bob, why are you resisting me?' I said, 'I'm not resisting You!' He said, 'You gonna follow Me?' I said, 'I've never thought about that before!' He said, 'When you're not following Me. you're resisiting Me. ~ Bob Dylan

I gotta friend who spends his life, stabbing my picture with a bowie knife. Dreams of strangling me with a scarf, when my name comes up he pretends to barf. ~ Bob Dylan

I come from way north. We'd listen to radio shows all the time. I think I was the last generation, or pretty close to the last one, that grew up without TV. ~ Bob Dylan

The best songs are the songs you write that you don't know anything about. They're an escape. ~ Bob Dylan

It's like my whole life never happened, When I see you, it's as if I never had a thought. I know this dream, it might be crazy, But it's the only one I've got. ~ Bob Dylan

You can have your youth It'll rot before your eyes ~ Bob Dylan

Don't know which one is worse, doing your own thing or just being cool. ~ Bob Dylan

I'm not the kind of cat that's going to cut off an ear if I can't do something. ~ Bob Dylan

After the original rapture of conversion had settled in, (Bob) Dylan backed away from his obviously Christian lyrics and returned to his more metaphorical use of language. ~ Ron Jacobs

In writing songs, I've learned as much from Cezanne as I have from Woody Guthrie. ~ Bob Dylan

I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken ~ Bob Dylan

Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dylan I heard when I was 13. It was one of those things where it was like, "Hey, the world is much bigger than you imagined as a little kid." ~ Ezra Furman

You can't imagine parlor ballads drifting out of high-rise multi-towered buildings. That kind of music existed in a more timeless state of life. ~ Bob Dylan

The sun isn't yellow, it's chicken ~ Bob Dylan

I'm a good friend of Jonah Lehrer's. You should go on a date with him. ~ Bob Dylan

Come writers and critics Who prophesize with your pen And keep your eyes wide The chance won't come again And don't speak too soon For the wheel's still in spin And there's no tellin' who That it's namin' For the loser now Will be later to win For the times they are a-changin'. ~ Bob Dylan

They said, congratulations you got what it takes. They sent him back to the rat race without any brakes. ~ Bob Dylan

The ghosts race towards the light, you can almost hear the heavy breathing spirits, all determined to get somewhere. New Orleans, unlike a lot of places you go back to and that don't have the magic anymore, still has got it. Night can swallow you up, yet none of it touches you. You can't see it, but you know it's here. Somebody's always sinking. ~ Bob Dylan

Everybody who I ever cared about has told me that they like my music: Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Al Green, The Spinners, Smokey Robinson. Everybody that matters. ~ Daryl Hall

There were times in my career when I would try to write songs like Bob Dylan ... Artists get hooked up in that. To be a follower, you lose. ~ Del Shannon

I'm in a position I never imagined I'd be in as a musician. Bob Dylan built an audience through recording and live shows. The opportunities for an artist today are totally different. ~ Ben Sollee

I didn't come out of a cereal box. ~ Bob Dylan

treat you like a criminal," he said, showing a slide of an inmate in striped prison garb. Then a slide of Bob Dylan came on the screen. "People want to own the music they love. ~ Walter Isaacson

Happiness is not on my list of priorities. I just deal with day-to-day things. If I'm happy, I'm happy - and if I'm not, I don't know the difference. Knowing that you are the person you were put on this earth to be - that's much more important than just being happy. ~ Bob Dylan

I think, especially among the New York intelligentsia at that time, that there was a reason Bob Dylan went to New York to happen, because there was a culture developed there around the ideas of civil rights, around the idea of democracy growing out of Emerson and Thoreau, these ideas of the fanfare for the common man. ~ T Bone Burnett

I didn't mean to treat you so bad
You shouldn't take it so personal
I didn't mean to make you so sad
You just happened to be there, that's all
When I saw you say "goodbye" to your friend and smile
I thought that it was well understood
That you'd be comin' back in a little while
I didn't know that you were sayin' "goodbye" for good

But, sooner or later, one of us must know
You just did what you're supposed to do
Sooner or later, one of us must know
That I really did try to get close to you

I couldn't see what you could show me
Your scarf had kept your mouth well hid
I couldn't see how you could know me
But you said you knew me and I believed you did
When you whispered in my ear
And asked me if I was leavin' with you or her
I didn't realize just what I did hear
I didn't realize how young you were

But, sooner or later, one of us must know
You just did what you're supposed to do
Sooner or later, one of us must know
That I really did try to get close to you

I couldn't see when it started snowin'
Your voice was all that I heard
I couldn't see where we were goin'
But you said you knew an' I took your word
And then you told me later, as I apologized
That you were just kiddin' me, you weren't really from the farm
An' I told you, as you clawed out my eyes
That I never really meant to do you any harm

Bob Dylan

Don't think twice, it's alright. ~ Bob Dylan

In 1952, Muddy cut the song 'Rollin' Stone.' It was a nationwide success, and the song echoes down through rock n' roll history. Bob Dylan cut a tribute by the same name, an English band decided to call themselves the Rolling Stones, and the magazine that first embraced music as a serious cultural phenomenon was itself called 'Rolling Stone.' ~ Tim Cahill

It's a wicked life, but what the hell, the stars ain't falling down. ~ Bob Dylan

You could listen to Woody Guthrie songs and actually learn how to live ... ~ Bob Dylan

In the '60s, I used to love rock magazines; I'd cut out pictures of Bob Dylan and John Lennon. ~ Patti Smith

A mistake is to commit a misunderstanding. ~ Bob Dylan

Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their marks
Made everything from toy guns that sparks
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far
That not much
Is really sacred.

While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the President of the United States
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.

An' though the rules of the road have been lodged
It's only people's games that you got to dodge
And it's alright, Ma, I can make it.

Advertising signs that con you
Into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you.

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

For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despite their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something
They invest in.

While some on principles baptized
To strict party platforms ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
And then say God Bl ~ Bob Dylan

Truth is an arrow and the gate is narrow that it passes through. ~ Bob Dylan

I want to see Bob Dylan do sketch comedy. I'm a huge Bob Dylan fan. ~ Bradley Whitford

Passion is a young man's game. Young people can be passionate. Older people gotta be more wise. I mean, you're around awhile, you leave certain things to the young. Don't try to act like you're young. You could really hurt yourself. ~ Bob Dylan

The warrior who's strength is not to fight. ~ Bob Dylan

I listen to Radio 4 and put the iPod on shuffle. I like the randomness of, say, the Stones, then something from Nina Simone, Nick Drake or Bob Dylan. ~ Catherine McCormack

I think people are 'just creative,' and this can be expressed in a number of ways. Bob Dylan and David Bowie create both music and art. ~ Ronnie Wood

People are going to say, 'Well, it's not very truthful.' But a songwriter doesn't care about what's truthful. What he cares about is what should've happened, what could've happened. That's its own kind of truth. It's like people who read Shakespeare plays, but they never see a Shakespeare play. I think they just use his name. ~ Bob Dylan

Behind every beautiful thing, there's some kind of pain. ~ Bob Dylan

You've got to lose your passion for dumbness. ~ Bob Dylan

New York was a city where you could be frozen to death in the midst of a busy street and nobody would notice. ~ Bob Dylan

There are degrees of happiness. You go from one to the other and then back again. It's hard to be completely happy when those around us are suffering and groaning from hunger. ~ Bob Dylan

The people that impress me are Bob Dylan. The ones who keep working, year in and year out, and keep coming up with stuff. ~ Ben Mendelsohn

It frightens me, the awful truth, of how sweet life can be ... ~ Bob Dylan

Death to me means nothing as long as I can die fast. ~ Bob Dylan

Your problem is that you wanna better word for world ~ Bob Dylan

Growing up, I was inspired by The Beatles and Bob Dylan. Damian Rice was a huge influence for me musically. ~ Ed Sheeran

I wouldn't even think of playing music if I was
born in these times. I wouldn't even listen to the radio. ~ Bob Dylan

After Nashville sushi and a long debate on Bob Dylan, we went into Woodland Studios at 10 pm that night for a look around, and jammed for 5 hours solid. ~ Robyn Hitchcock

I could be unraveling wherever I'm traveling, even to foreign shores. ~ Bob Dylan

What's the matter with me
I don't have much to say ...
People disagreeing on all just about everything, yeah
Makes you stop and all wonder why
Why only yesterday I saw somebody on the street
Who just couldn't help but cry
Oh, this ol' river keeps on rollin', though
No matter what gets in the way and which way the wind does blow
And as long as it does I'll just sit here
And watch the river flow
People disagreeing everywhere you look
Makes you wanna stop and read a book
Why only yesterday I saw somebody on the street
That was really shook
But this ol' river keeps on rollin', though
No matter what gets in the way and which way the wind does blow
And as long as it does I'll just sit here
And watch the river flow. ~ Bob Dylan

Really the truth is just a plain picture. A plain picture of, let's say, a tramp vomiting in the sewere. You know, and next door to the picture Mr. Rockefeller or Mr. C. W. Jones on the subway going to work. You know, any kind of picture. Just make a collage of pictures. ~ Bob Dylan

To us, there was Bob Dylan, and there was dad. As for what he meant to other people, that was never glorified in our house. There were no accolades there, no gold records. ~ Jakob Dylan

I don't call myself a poet, because I don't like the word. ~ Bob Dylan

God bless them pretty women, I wish they was mine, Their breath is as sweet, The dew on the vine. ~ Bob Dylan

I became interested in folk music because I had to make it somehow. ~ Bob Dylan

I just try to understand that tomorrow is another day. ~ Bob Dylan

With your sheet-metal memory of Cannery Row, and your magazine-husband who one day just had to go. And your gentleness now, which you just can't help but show - who among them do you think would employ you? Now you stand with your thief, you're on his parole, with your holy medallion which your fingertips fold. And your saintlike face and your ghostlike soul - oh, who among them do you think could destroy you? ~ Bob Dylan

Everyone is making love or else expecting rain ~ Bob Dylan

The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face ~ Bob Dylan

Last night I danced with a stranger, but she just reminded me you were the one. ~ Bob Dylan

The truth that I am seeking is in your missing file. ~ Bob Dylan

Along with a lot of other things, becoming a Bob Dylan fan made me a writer. I was never interested in figuring out what the songs meant. I was interested in figuring out my response to them, and other people's responses. I wanted to get closer to the music than I could by listening to it - I wanted to get inside of it, behind it, and writing about it through it, inside of it, behind it, was my way of doing that. ~ Greil Marcus

An' though the rules of the road have been lodged,
It's only people's games that you got to dodge.
From It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) ~ Bob Dylan

James Joyce seemed like the most arrogant man who ever lived, had both his eyes wide open and great faculty of speech, but what he say, I knew not what. ~ Bob Dylan

The sun's not yellow, its chicken! ~ Bob Dylan

Every day your memory grows dimmer - it doesn't haunt me like it did before. ~ Bob Dylan

With your silhouette when the sunlight dims
Into your eyes where the moonlight swims,
And your match-book songs and your gypsy hymns,
Who among them would try to impress you?
-Bob Dylan, "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" (1966) ~ Bob Dylan

If my thought-dreams could be seen/ They'd probably put my head in a guillotine. ~ Bob Dylan

Everything in New Orleans is a good idea. Bijou temple-type cottages and lyric cathedrals side by side. Houses and mansions, structures of wild grace. Italianate, Gothic, Romanesque, Greek Revival standing in a long line in the rain. Roman Catholic art. Sweeping front porches, turrets, cast-iron balconies, colonnades- 30-foot columns, gloriously beautiful- double pitched roofs, all the architecture of the whole wide world and it doesn't move. ~ Bob Dylan

I could stay with you forever and never realize the time. ~ Bob Dylan

In New York, I'm around a lot of the reasons I started playing music in the first place. I live right behind Matt Umanov Guitars. I live on the street that Suze Rotolo and Bob Dylan were walking down on the album cover. I recognize the history. ~ Steve Earle

My senses have been stripped, my hands can't feel to grip, my toes to numb to step, wait only for my boot heels to be wandering. ~ Bob Dylan

Well, the moral of the story, The moral of this song, Is simply that one should never be Where one does not belong. So when you see your neighbor carryin' somethin', Help him with his load, And don't go mistaking Paradise For that home across the road. ~ Bob Dylan

It's very tiring having other people tell you how much they dig you if you yourself don't dig you. ~ Bob Dylan

The Harmonica is the world's best-selling musical instrument. You're welcome. ~ Bob Dylan

The things that bring couples together will always terrify me more than the things that tear us apart. They will always be harder to explain. They will always keep me up later. Love gone wrong has inspired so many great songs, but somehow, love going right is what's bizarre. It exposes deep freakcraft in the universe. As far as I'm concerned, 'some people are very kind' is the scariest line Bob Dylan ever wrote. Compared to that, his breakup songs are kid stuff. Some people are very kind and there's nothing in the universe to explain why.
It's a mystery how people lose each other
but to me, it's an even stranger mystery we manage to stay together, or to collide together at all. ~ Rob Sheffield

reality has too many heads ~ Bob Dylan

When you got nothing, you got nothin' to lose You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal. ~ Bob Dylan

You've been through all of F. Scott Fitzgerald's books, you're very well read, it's well known. ~ Bob Dylan

I'm listening to Neil Young, I gotta turn up the sound. Someone's always yellin', 'Turn him down'."
"Highlands" from "Time Out of Mind" (1997) ~ Bob Dylan

Nothing can affect my voice, it's so bad. ~ Bob Dylan

I am a child of the '70s, so I love classic rock - Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Van Morrison, and I also love Coldplay. ~ Rachel Zoe

How many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned? ~ Bob Dylan

And the words that are used
For to get the ship confused
Will not be understood as they're spoken.
For the chains of the sea
Will have busted in the night
And will be buried at the bottom of the ocean. ~ Bob Dylan

Like almost all of Beefheart's recorded work, [Trout Mask Replica] was not even "ahead" of its time in 1969. Then and now, it stands outside time, trends, fads, hypes, the rise and fall of whole genres eclectic as walking Christmas trees, constituting a genre unto itself: truly, a musical Monolith if ever there was one. ~ Lester Bangs

He [Johnny Cash] always wanted to use his music to lift other people up, to say no matter how much trouble, there's hope. That was always his message in his songs. That's why he and [Bob] Dylan bonded so much, because they were both trying to do something meaningful. ~ Robert Hilburn

When blackness was a virtue and the road was full of mud, I came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form. ~ Bob Dylan

My heroes, I couldn't imagine them practicing. Like Bob Dylan, you know? Bob Dylan's a very, very good guitar player, but it's like he's trying to hide it. I always loved this attitude. When you're very good ... it's like being an athlete - and I always hated sports! ~ Laurent Brancowitz

Privacy is something you can sell, but you can't buy it back. ~ Bob Dylan

Bullets can harm you and death can disarm you, but no, you will not be deceived. Stripped of all virtue as you crawl through the dirt, you can give but you cannot receive. ~ Bob Dylan

Well, it's hard to stumble And land in some muddy lagoon When it's nine below zero And three o'clock in the afternoon. ~ Bob Dylan

Too much of nothing, it just makes a fellow mean. ~ Bob Dylan

I think I'm the oldest new Bob Dylan around. I predate Bruce Springsteen, Steve Forbat and John Prine. I was probably the first of the new Bob Dylans. ~ Loudon Wainwright III

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 ~ Bob Dylan

Suddenly I found you and the spirit in me sings, Don't have to look no further, You're the soul of many things. ~ Bob Dylan