Bob Dylan.
Many consider the 80-year-old Duluth, Minnesota-born artist to be the greatest songwriter of all time. Certainly, his lyricism will span the centuries. Songs like “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin'” will last forever.
But what does the creative spirit behind these indelible works have to say about the world at large? What does he say about life, love, freedom and the art of laughter?
Here, we’ll dive into Dylan’s 23 best quotes. Certainly, there are many. But these are the best of the best. So, without further ado, let’s dive in.
1. “What is money? A man is successful if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in the meantime does what he wants to do.
2. “Folk music is a big bunch of people.”
3. “You are going to die. You will be dead. It could be 20 years from now, it could be tomorrow, anytime. Me too. I mean, we’re just gonna leave. The world will go on without us. Alright now. You do your job in the face of it, and how seriously you take yourself, you decide for yourself.
4. “People rarely do what they believe in. They do what suits them, then repent.”
5. “All this talk about equality. The only thing people really have in common is that they’re all going to die.
6. “Inspiration is hard to come by. You have to take it where you find it.
7. “I’m inconsistent, even to myself.”
8. “If I weren’t Bob Dylan, I’d probably think Bob Dylan has a lot of the answers myself.”
9. “Some people seem to fade away, but when they’re really gone, it’s like they haven’t faded away at all.”
10. “A mistake is to make a misunderstanding.”
11. “I change over the course of a day. I wake up and I’m one person, and when I go to sleep I know for sure I’m someone else.
12. “Take care of all your memories. Because you can’t relive them.
13. “I don’t define anything, neither beauty nor patriotism. I take everything as it is, with no prior rules of what it should be.
14. “I consider a hero to be someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with their freedom.”
15. “I think women run the world and no man has ever done anything that a woman hasn’t allowed him to do or encouraged him to do.”
16. “There is nothing more stable than change.”
17. “No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky.”
18. “A poem is a naked person… Some people say I’m a poet.”
19. “I’m unnatural. I don’t dig nature at all. I think nature is very unnatural. I think the really natural things are dreams, which nature can’t touch with decay.
20. “This land is your land and this land is my land, of course, but the world is run by those who never listen to music anyway.”
21. “Being noticed can be a burden. Jesus got himself crucified because he got noticed. So I disappear a lot.
22. “I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I will die like a poet.
23. “I don’t define anything. Not beauty, not patriotism. I take everything as it is, with no prior rules of what it should be.
What’s your favorite Dylan quote? Comments below.
Comments are closed.