Lay down the song you strum, And rest yourself 'neath the strength of strings No voice can hope to hum.
Bob DylanBob Dylan was again an entirely new person - this time old, craggy, cynical, and world-weary, as in "Not Dark Yet".
Bob DylanShe took off her wheel, took off her bell, took off her wig, said, how do I smell? I hot footed it barenaked out the window.
Bob DylanMusic can save people, but it can't in the commercial way it's being used. It's just too much. It's pollution.
Bob DylanThe "joker" here ["All Along the Watchtower" ] is the older [Bob] Dylan himself, whining about exploitation, and the thief's rejoinder re-contextualizes the earlier critique into the religious frames that would become more prominent as time went on.
Bob DylanThere were only a few seats left in coach and Bob found himself seated next to a young female fan. 'I can't believe I'm sitting next to Bob Dylan!' she screamed.'Pinch yourself,' said Bob."
Bob DylanWhen it came time to hire a guitar player ... I didn't even have to think about it ... Mike Bloomfield was the best guitar player I'd ever heard.
Bob DylanWell I'm living in a foreign country but I'm bound to cross the line. Beauty walks a razor's edge...someday I'll make it mine.
Bob DylanThe cavalries charged and the Indians died, oh the country was young with God on its side.
Bob DylanWe don't see the people that vice destroys. We just see the glamour of it - everywhere we look, from billboard signs to movies, to newspapers, to magazines. We see the destruction of human life.
Bob DylanYou need something to open up a new door, to show you something you seen before but overlooked a hundred times or more
Bob DylanMost songs have bridges in them, to distract listeners from the main verses of a song so they don't get bored. My songs don't have a lot of bridges because lyric poetry never had them.
Bob DylanStrange how people who suffer together have stronger connections than those who are most content.
Bob DylanFor them that must obey authority/That they do not respect in any degree/Who despise their jobs, their destinies/Speak jealously of them that are free
Bob DylanMy father probably thought the capital of the world was wherever he was at the time. It couldn't possibly be anyplace else. Where he and his wife were in their own home, that, for them, was the capital of the world.
Bob DylanThe first thing you notice about New Orleans are the burying grounds - the cemeteries - and they're a cold proposition, one of the best things there are here. Going by, you try to be as quiet as possible, better to let them sleep. Greek, Roman, sepulchres- palatial mausoleums made to order, phantomesque, signs and symbols of hidden decay - ghosts of women and men who have sinned and who've died and are now living in tombs. The past doesn't pass away so quickly here. You could be dead for a long time
Bob DylanI don't think the human mind can comprehend the past and the future. They are both just illusions that can manipulate you into thinking there's some kind of change.
Bob DylanTo preach of peace and brotherhood, oh what might be the cost? A man he did it long ago, and they hung him on a cross.
Bob DylanI always thought the best kind of sunglasses are the motorcycle helmets with the black plastic masks on them. That way, nobody can recognize the back of your head either.
Bob DylanEarly on, before rock 'n' roll, I listened to big band music - anything that came over the radio - and music played by bands in hotels that our parents could dance to. We had a big radio that looked like a jukebox, with a record player on the top. The radio/record player played 78rpm records. When we moved to that house, there was a record on there, with a red label. It was Bill Monroe, or maybe it was the Stanley Brothers. I'd never heard anything like that before. Ever. And it moved me away from all the conventional music that I was hearing.
Bob DylanPeople today are still living off the table scraps of the sixties. They are still being passed around - the music and the ideas.
Bob Dylan