Bob Dylan Quotes

Yesterday's just a memory, tomorrow is never what it's supposed to be.

We're living in times where men commit crimes and crime don't have a face.

People 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.

I stopped smoking. When I stopped smoking, my voice changed... so drastically, I couldn't believe it myself.

What 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.

It's very tiring having other people tell you how much they dig you if you yourself don't dig you.

Wasn't making any great connection Wasn't falling for any intricate scheme Nothing that would pass inspection Just thinking of a series of dreams

Don't get up gentlemen. I'm only passing through!

He did ten years in Attica, reading Nietzsche and Wilhelm Reich.

You don't write a song to sit there on a page. You write it to sing it.

When you asked me how I was doing, was that some kind of joke

Heard ten thousand whispering and nobody listening. Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughing. Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter.

Colleges are like old-age homes, except for the fact that more people die in colleges.

I really don't like to hurt myself. I have a good understanding with all the women who have been in my life, whether I see them occasionally or not.

I was just too stubborn to ever be governed by enforced insanity.

Inside the museum infinity goes up on trial. Voices echo, 'This is what salvation must be like after a while.' But Mona Lisa must have had the highway blues; you can tell by the way she smiles.

As he weeps to wicked birds of prey, who pick up on his bread crumb sins, and there are no sins inside the Gates of Eden.

What good are fans? You can't eat applause for breakfast. You can't sleep with it.

i been meek, and hard like an oak, i seen pretty people disappear like smoke. friends will arrive, friends will disappear. if you want me, honey baby, i'll be here.

Warlords of sorrow and queens of tomorrow will offer their heads for a prayer. You can't find no salvation, you have no expectations anytime, anyplace, anywhere.

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am.

If there's an original thought out there, I could use one right now.

I hurt easy, I just don't show it. You can hurt someone and not even know it.

You'll never be greater than yourself.

And I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinking.

You know, the streets are filled with vipers Who've lost all ray of hope You know, it ain't even safe no more In the palace of the Pope

When blackness was a virtue and the road was full of mud, I came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form.

I march in the parade of liberty But as long as I love you I’m not free How long must I suffer such abuse Won’t you let me see you smile one time before I turn you loose?

I gaze into the doorway of temptation's angry flame And every time I pass that way I always hear my name

Look, when I started out, mainstream culture was Sinatra, Perry Como, Andy Williams, Sound of Music. There was no fitting into it then and of course, there's no fitting into it now.

let me forget about today until tomorrow

They self-inflict punishment on their own broken lives, put their faith in their possessions, in their jobs, or their wives.

I'll stand over your grave 'til I'm sure that you're dead.

I believe that instinct is what makes a genius a genius.

In the fury of the moment/ I can see the Master's hand In every leaf that trembles, in/ every grain of sand.

I can't stand to see myself on television.

Now, each of us has his own special gift And you know this was meant to be true. And if you don't underestimate me I won't underestimate you.

It's like my whole life never happened, When I see you, it's as if I never had a thought. I know this dream, it might be crazy, But it's the only one I've got.

I read On the Road in maybe 1959. It changed my life like it changed everyone else's.

I didn't know whether to duck or to run, so I ran.

I once loved a girl, her skin it was bronze With the innocence of a lamb, she was gentle like a fawn I courted her proudly but now she is gone Gone as the season she's taken

Whatever that ["transfiguration" by Bob Dylan] means, it's true that the poetic brilliance of the early career would never really reappear.

A song is anything that can walk by itself.

After a while you earn that privacy is something you can sell, but you can't buy it back.

The song was there before me, before I came along. I just sorta came down and just sorta took it down with a pencil, but it was there before I came around.

There are things I could say. But I don't.

It is the first line that gives the inspiration and then it's like riding a bull. Either you just stick with it, or you don't.

The people in my songs are all me.

I ain't looking to compete with you, beat, or cheat, or mistreat you, simplify you, classify you, deny, defy, or crucify you. All I really want to do is, baby, be friends with you.

Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're tryin' to be so quiet?