Bob Dylan

To live outside the law, you must be honest.

At times in my life the only place I have been happy is when I am on stage.

A poem is a naked person… Some people say that I am a poet.

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

In ceremonies of the horsemen, even the pawn must hold a grudge.

But even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.

If you understood everything I say, you’d be me!

I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was 6 years old.

I had spent many years pursuing excellence, because that is what classical music is all about… Now it was dedicated to freedom, and that was far more important.

[on B. B. King] Very seldom does he talks about the way he play, man. He always wanna talk about young women. And I fuss at him sometimes, I say, ‘Man I wanna know what did you do here!’

I’d like to feel that whatever I play is a result of whatever I’ve heard.

One of the advantages of growing older is you learn what to leave out.

Songwriting is about getting the demon out of me. It’s like being possessed. You try to go to sleep, but the song won’t let you. So you have to get up and make it into something, and then you’re allowed to sleep. It’s always in the middle of the night, or you’re half-awake or tired, when your critical faculties are switched off. So letting go is what the whole game is. Every time you try to put your finger on it, it slips away. You turn on the lights and the cockroaches run away. You can never grasp them…

Music should enrich the soul; it should teach spirituality by showing a person a portion of himself that he would not discover otherwise. It’s easy to rediscover part of yourself, but through art you can be shown part of yourself you never knew existed. That’s the real mission of art. The artist has to find something within himself that’s universal and which he can put into terms that are communicable to other people. The magic of it is that art can communicate to a person without his realizing it.

In Europe they look upon jazz as art. In America it’s a diversion. Somebody opens a restaurant and installs another band off to the side. People don’t listen.

I’ve studied all my musical life, but learning is only good if you do something constructive with it.

When we were at the Apollo, Holiday was a block away. I asked her for her autograph.

After you’ve done all the work and prepared as much as you can, what the hell, you might as well go out and have a good time.

I like people who have worked long and hard, developing through introspection and dedication.

I’m an experimenter. It’s rich because every album I’ve done, except for a couple of techno-y records, are different. Really you’ve got to hand it to the Fender Strat, because there are songs in that guitar. It’s a tool of great inspiration and torture at the same time because it’s forever sitting there challenging you to find something else in it, but it is there if you really search.

[on B.B. King] He is without a doubt the most important artist the blues has ever produced, and the most humble and genuine man you would ever wish to meet. In terms of scale or stature, I believe that if Robert Johnson was reincarnated, he is probably B.B. King.