Bob Dylan

Music American 1941 310 quotes

Nobel laureate, transformed popular song into literature

Most quoted

"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."

— from Interview

"Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call. Don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall. For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled. The battle outside ragin' will soon shake your windows and rattle your walls."

— from Song (The Times They Are a-Changin'), 1963

"Some people feel that if you just want to be a rock 'n' roll singer or something, then you should go for it. But I think that if you're not, then you should be honest about it."

— from Interview, 1965

All quotes by Bob Dylan (310)

I don't have all the answers. In life, to be honest, I failed as a person, not as a musician.

Interview 1984

Being noticed can be a burden. Jesus got himself crucified because he got noticed.

Interview 1978

I really didn't consider myself a writer until I was a songwriter.

Interview 2004

A song is like a dream, and you just wake up from that dream.

Interview 1991

The truth is, I don't care about money.

Interview 1969

I change during the course of a day. I wake and I'm one person, and when I go to sleep I know well what I am.

Interview 1965

People today are still living off the table scraps of the sixties.

Interview 1985

In the end, it's all about the music.

Interview 2001

I was born very young in a very old country.

Interview 1962

My songs are personal music, they're not communal. I wouldn't want people singing along with me.

Interview 1978

The only person you have to please is yourself.

Interview 1997

I don't see myself as a revolutionary, but simply as someone who wants the world to be a little more like it is.

Interview 1966

Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

Interview 1980

You learn from a disaster. You don't learn from a victory.

Interview 1970

I'm not a politician. I'm just a musician.

Interview 1965

The past is a bucket of ashes.

Song (Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts) 1975

One thing I can't stand is when people say, 'Hi, how are you?' I say, 'Fine,' but I'm not fine.

Interview 1986

A hero is someone who understands the responsibility of being a hero.

Interview 2004

Yes, and how many years can some people exist before they're allowed to be free?

Blowin' in the Wind (song) 1963

Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn't see?

Blowin' in the Wind (song) 1963