Bob Dylan

“The sun isn't yellow, it's chicken”

“Hey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for meI'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going toHey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for meIn the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin' shipMy senses have been stripped, my hands can't feel to gripMy toes too numb to step, wait only for my boot heelsTo be wanderin'I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm ready for to fadeInto my own parade, cast your dancing spell my wayI promise to go under it.”

“de kronieken”

“If you think the summer sun is too hot, just remember, at least you don't have to shovel it.”

“One more cup of coffee for the roadOne more cup of coffee 'fore I go.To the valley below.”

“I can't think for you, you'll have to decide, whether Judas Iscariot had god on his side”

“with her fog, her amphetamine, and her pearls ...”

“Well...you know, you can influence all kinds of people, but sometimes it gets in the way -- especially if somebody is accusing you of influencing somebody that you had no interest in influencing in the first place.”

“Q: Is it still possible nowadays to influence the world by songs? To be political by means of messages?A: No, there are newspapers for that. When people want to deal with the world, they should watch television.Q: That's very passive.A: The world has become like that. People are going to the football stadium, they don't play themselves anymore.Q: Did you ever think you could be politically active through your songs?A: No, no, no. If I had wanted to do that, I would have gone to Harvard or Yale, would have studied and would have a become a politician after that.”

“It's easier to be me than someone else. But just like most famous people, I just want to be left alone most of the time.”

“By being a celebrity, you lose your anonymity. It short-circuits your creative powers when people come up and interrupt your train of thought. They consider you completely approachable. And you can't be rude to people, so basically you shut yourself down. I know I do. I shut myself down when people come up and want to shake my hand or want to talk. That's just dead time.”

“Philosophical dogma doesn't interest me.”

“I can identify with other people and situations, but I tend not to. I would rather recall things from my own life, and I don't have to force myself. . . . Just being in certain environments triggers a response in my brain, a certain feeling I want to articulate. For some reason, I am attracted to self-destruction. I know that personal sacrifice has a great deal to do with how we live or don't live our lives.”

“Environment affects me a great deal. A lot of the songs were written after the sun went down. And I like storms, I like to stay up during a storm. I get very meditative sometimes, and this one phrase was going through my head: `Work while the day lasts, because the night of death cometh when no man can work.' I don't recall where I heard it. I like preaching, I hear a lot of preaching, and I probably just heard it somewhere. Maybe it's in Psalms, it beats me. But it wouldn't let me go. I was, like, what does that phrase mean? But it was at the forefront of my mind, for a long period of time...”

“I've got to know that I'm singing something with truth to it. My songs are different than anybody else's songs. Other artists can get by on their voices and their style, but my songs speak volumes, and all I have to to is lay them down correctly, lyrically, and they'll do what they need to do.”

“A lot of people don't like the road, but it's as natural to me as breathing. I do it because I'm driven to do it, and I either hate it or love it. I'm mortified to be on the stage, but then again, it's the only place where I'm happy. It's the only place you can be who you want to be. You can't be who you want to be in daily life. I don't care who you are, you're going to be disappointed in daily life. But the cure-all for all that is to get on the stage, and that's why performers do it. But in saying that, I don't want to put on the mask of celebrity. I'd rather just do my work and see it as a trade.”

“everyone is making love or else expecting rain”

“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?”

“In the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales for the disrobed faceless forms of no position. Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts - all down in taken-for-granted situations. Tolling for the deaf an' blind, tolling for the mute, and the mistreated mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute, for the misdemeanor outlaw, chained an' cheated by pursuit. And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.”

“It's a shadowy world, skies are slippery grey. A woman just gave birth to a prince today and dressed him in scarlet. He'll put the priest in his pocket, put the blade to the heat, take the motherless children off the street and place them at the feet of a harlot.”

“How long can I listen to the lies of prejudice? How long can I stay drunk on fear out in the wilderness? Can I cast it aside, all this loyalty and this pride? Will I ever learn that there'll be no peace, that the war won't cease, until He returns?”

“I could be unraveling wherever I'm traveling, even to foreign shores.”

“In the valley of the giants where the stars and stripes explode, the peaches they were sweet and the milk and honey flowed.”

“and if anybody asks me is it easy to forgetI'll say it is easily done,you just pick anyone,and pretend that you never have met”

“her skirt it swayed as the guitar playedher mouth it was watery and yet ...”

“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.”

“And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe itAnd reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see itThen I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’But I’ll know my song well before I start singin”

“I count the years and I shed no tears; I'm blinded to what might have been. Nature's voice makes my heart rejoice; play me the wild song of the wind.”

“I hate myself for loving you and the weakness that it showed. You were just a painted face on a trip down to suicide road.”

“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”

“You can always come back, but you can't come back all the way.”

“If you don't believe there's a price for this sweet paradise, just remind me to show you the scars.”

“20 years of schooling and they put you on the day shift.”

“Oh you five and ten cent womenWith nothin' in your headsI got a real gal I'm lovin'And Lord I'll love her till I'm deadGo away from my door and my window tooRight now”

“Well I knew when I first laid eyes on herI could never be freeOne look at her and I knew right awayShe should always be with meWell the dream dried up a long time agoDon't know where it is anymoreTrue to life, true to meWas the girl from the red river shoreWell I'm wearing the cloak of miseryAnd I've tasted jilted loveAnd the frozen smile upon my faceFits me like a gloveWell I can't escape from the memoryOf the one I'll always adoreAll those nights when I lay in the armsOf the girl from the red river shoreWell we're living in the shadows of a fading pastTrapped in the fires of timeI've tried not to ever hurt anybodyAnd to stay out of the life of crimeAnd when it's all been said and doneI never did know the scoreOne more day is another day awayFrom the girl from the red river shore.”

“ll the merry little elves can go hang themselves My faith is as cold as can be I'm stacked high to the roof, and I'm not without proof If you don't believe me, come see.You think i'm blue I think so too In my words you'll find no guile The game's gotten old The deck's gone cold And i'm gonna have to put you down for a while The game's gotten old The deck's gone cold I'm gonna have to put you down for a while-Bob Dylan, “Huck’s Tune”

“you are right john cohen — quazimodo was right — mozart was right… . I cannot say the word eye any more … . when I speak this word eye, it is as if I am speaking of somebody’s eye that I faintly remember … . there is no eye — there is only a series of mouths — long live the mouths — your rooftop — if you don’t already know — has been demolished … . eye is plasma & you are right about that too — you are lucky — you don’t have to think about such things as eye & rooftops & quazimodo.”

“Sweet Goddess, born of a blinding light and a changing wind, don't be modest - you know who you are and where you've been.”

“With your silhouette when the sunlight dimsInto 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)”

“Well my ship’s been split to splinters and it’s sinkin' fast
I’m drownin’ in the poison, got no future, got no past
But my heart is not weary, it’s light and it’s free
I’ve got nothin’ but affection for all those who’ve sailed with meEverybody movin’ if they ain’t already there
Everybody got to move somewhere
Stick with me baby, stick with me anyhow
Things should start to get interestin' right about nowMy clothes are wet, tight on my skin
Not as tight as the corner that I painted myself in
I know that fortune is waitin’ to be kind
So give me your hand and say you’ll be mineWell, the emptiness is endless, cold as the clay
You can always come back, but you can’t come back all the way
Only one thing I did wrong
Stayed in Mississippi a day too long -Bob Dylan, “Mississippi”

“Well, I’ve been to London and I’ve been to gay Paris
I’ve followed the river and I got to the sea
I’ve been down on the bottom of a world full of lies
I ain’t looking for nothing in anyone’s eyes
Sometimes my burden seems more than I can bear
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting thereI was born here and I’ll die here against my will
I know it looks like I’m moving, but I’m standing still
Every nerve in my body is so vacant and numb
I can’t even remember what it was I came here to get away from
Don’t even hear a murmur of a prayer
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there-Bob Dylan, “Not Dark Yet” (1997)”

“Yes, I received your letter yesterday
(About the time the doorknob broke)
When you asked how I was doing
Was that some kind of joke?All these people that you mention
Yes, I know them, they’re quite lame
I had to rearrange their faces
And give them all another name
Right now I can’t read too good
Don’t send me no more letters, no
Not unless you mail them
From Desolation Row-Bob Dylan, “Desolation Row” (1965)”

“An’ here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out of
Going through all these things twice
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again -Bob Dylan, “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again” (1966)”

“In the dime stores and bus stations
People talk of situations
Read books, repeat quotations
Draw conclusions on the wall
Some speak of the future
My love she speaks softly
She knows there’s no success like failure
And that failure’s no success at all-Bob Dylan, “Love Minus Zero / No Limit” (1965)”

“We heard the Sermon on the Mount and I knew it was too complex, It didn't amount to anything more than what the broken glass reflects. When you bite off more than you can chew you pay the penalty, Somebody's got to tell the tale, I guess it must be up to me. –Bob Dylan, “Up To Me”

“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.”

“When you think that you lost everything you find out you can always lose a little more.”

“Passion rules the arrow that flies.”

“Last night I danced with a stranger, but she just reminded me you were the one.”

“I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.”