In his own words.
My wonderful boyfriend allowed me to borrow the book, “Bob Dylan: In His Own Words.” Which is just a bunch of things that Bob Dylan had said. I read pretty much all of it on the way home Sunday and these are the quotes that I loved.
You sound angry in your songs. Does that mean you’re protesting against things that you’re angry about?
“I’m not angry. I’m a delightful sort of person.”
What is your real message?
“My real message? Keep a good head and always carry a light bulb.”
“You don’t necessarily have to write to be a poet. Some people work in gas stations and they’re poets. I don’t call myself a poet because I don’t like the word. I’m a trapeze artist.”
“If I liked a song, I would just learn it and sing it the only way I could play it.”
“I used to think that myself and my songs were the same thing. But I don’t believe that anymore. There is myself and there’s my song, which I hope is everybody’s song.”
“I always play as if nobody out there has ever heard of me. If you don’t do that, you get too complacent and you can’t read a crowd. You start assuming too many things.”
“Who actually applauds this kind of bullshit?”
“When I asked, ‘What am I supposed to do In this scene?’ the director would say, ‘Just be yourself’. Then I’d have to think, ‘Which one?’ Nobody ever explained that to me.”
“Drugs were never that big a thing with me. I could take them or leave them. Never hung me up.”
“Money was never a motivation to write anything. I never wrote anything with ‘this is gonna be a big hit or this isn’t’ type of attitude. I’m not that smart anyway.”
How much money do you have?
“I have about 75 million dollars, all sewed into my jacket-lining.”
“That [born-again period] was all part of my experience. It had to happen. When I get involved in something, I get totally involved. I don’t just play around on the fringes.”
“Jesus put his hand on me. It was a physical thing. I felt it. I felt it all over me. I felt my whole body tremble. The glory of the Lord knocked me down and picked me up.”
“Why should you want to know about me? I don’t want to know about you.”
“If I’d paid attention to what others were saying, the heart inside of me would have died.”
