Your mind is a your temple, keep it beautiful and free. Don't let an egg get laid in it by something you can't see.
Bob DylanEven if you don't have all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don't have that you don't want (Bob Dylan's dad)
Bob DylanBeing noticed can be a burden. Jesus got himself crucified because he got himself noticed. So I disappear a lot.
Bob DylanI was lookin' high an' low for them Reds everywhere, I was lookin' in the sink an' underneath the chair. I looked way up my chimney hole, I even looked deep inside my toilet bowl.
Bob DylanIt will scramble your head and drag your brain about, sometimes you gotta do like Elvis did and shoot the damn thing out.
Bob DylanWhat kind of alchemy could create a perfume that would make a reaction to a person lukewarm, indifferent and apathetic?If such a scent could be made I'd like some.
Bob DylanI just wanted a song to sing, and there came a point where I couldn't sing anything...nobo dy else was writing what I wanted to sing. I couldn't find it anywhere. If I could I probably would never have started writing.
Bob DylanAlong with some of the worst music of Bob Dylan's career ("Self-Portrait," 1970), this period produced some gems - including many songs recorded with The Band in '67 but not released until years later.
Bob DylanSome of the old folk singers used to phrase things in an interesting way, and then, I got my style from seeing a lot of outdoor-type poets, who would recite their poetry. When you don't have a guitar, you recite things differently, and there used to be quite a few poets in the jazz clubs, who would recite with a different type of attitude.
Bob DylanI thought that he was righteous, but he's vain. Oh, somethings a telling me I wear the ball and chain.
Bob DylanPrincess on the steeple and all the pretty people, they're drinking, thinking that they got it made. Exchanging all kinds of precious gifts and things, but you'd better lift your diamond ring, you'd better pawn it, babe.
Bob DylanPeople think they know me from my songs. But my repertoire of songs is so wide-ranging that you'd have to be a madman to figure out the characteristics of the person who wrote all those songs.
Bob DylanEvery man's conscience is vile and depraved / You cannot depend on it to be your guide when it’s you who must keep it satisfied.
Bob DylanWhen you're sad and when you're lonely and you haven't got a friend, just remember that death is not the end.
Bob DylanYou five and ten cent women with nothing in your heads, I got a real gal I'm loving and Lord I'll love her 'til I'm dead.
Bob DylanI heard the tongues of angels and the tongues of men and it all sounded no different to me.
Bob DylanThere's no black and white, left and right to me anymore; there's only up and down and down is very close to the ground. And I'm trying to go up without thinking about anything trivial such as politics. They have got nothing to do with it. I'm thinking about the general people and when they get hurt.
Bob DylanA brilliant 1989 album, Oh Mercy; some career retrospectives; and two albums of American folk songs, with just Bob Dylan and his guitar and harmonica. All that culminated in the Grammy-winning comeback album, Time Out of Mind (1997). Once again, just as Dylan seemed to be out of it, he was back at the top of his game.
Bob DylanIt's very tiring having other people tell you how much they dig you if you yourself don't dig you.
Bob DylanYou swore you'd never compromise With the mystery tramp, but now you realise He's not selling any alibis As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes And say, do you want to make a deal How does it feel
Bob DylanMy best songs were written very quickly. Just about as much time as it takes to write it down is about as long as it takes to write it...In writing songs I've learned as much from Cezanne as I have from Woody Guthrie...It's not me, it's the songs. I'm just the postman, I deliver the songs...I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I'll die like a poet.
Bob Dylan