224 Bob Dylan Quotes

Bob Dylan delivers raw, lyrical snapshots of life's drama, from poetic musings to gritty street tales.

There's no black and white, left and right to me anymore; there's only up and down and down is very close to the ground. And I'm trying to go up without thinking about anything trivial such as politics. They has got nothing to do with it. I'm thinking about the general people and when they get hurt.
#1
a poem is a naked person . . . some people say that i am a poet
#2
Reporter: How many people who labor in the same musical vineyard in which you toil - how many are protest singers? That is, people who use their music, and use the songs to protest the, uh, social state in which we live today: the matter of war, the matter of crime, or whatever it might be.
#3
Keep a good head and always carry a light bulb.
#4
God, I'm glad I'm not me.
#5
Chaos is a friend of mine.
#6
I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom.
#7
The first two lines, which rhymed 'kiddin' you' and 'didn't you,' just about knocked me out, and later on, when I got to the jugglers and the chrome horse and the princess on the steeple, it all just about got to be too much.
#8
People today are still living off the table scraps of the sixties. They are still being passed around-the music and the ideas.
#9
That ear - I mean, Jesus, he's got to will that to the Smithsonian.
#10
Because Dickens and Dostoevsky and Woody Guthrie were telling their stories much better than I ever could, I decided to stick to my own mind.
#11
We may not be able to defeat these swine, but we don't have to join them.
#12
Sometimes you say things in songs even if there's a small chance of them being true. And sometimes you say things that have nothing to do with the truth of what you want to say and sometimes you say things that everyone knows to be true. Then again, at the same time, you're thinking that the only truth on earth is that there is no truth on it. Whatever you are saying, you're saying in a ricky-tick way. There's never time to reflect. You stitched and pressed and packed and drove, is what you did.
#13
I put one on the turntable and when the needle dropped, I was stunned - didn't know whether I was stoned or straight.
#14
Morality has nothing in common with politics.
#15
You can't be wise and in love at the same time.
#16
He's a pinboy. He also wears suspenders. He's a real person. You know him, but not by that name... I saw him come into the room one night and he looked like a camel. He proceeded to put his eyes in his pocket. I asked this guy who he was and he said, 'That's Mr. Jones.' Then I asked this cat, 'Doesn't he do anything but put his eyes in his pocket?' And he told me, 'He puts his nose on the ground.' It's all there, it's a true story.
#17
I don't call myself a poet, because I don't like the word.
#18
I don't believe you! You're a liar! ... Play it fucking loud!
#19
You sound like a hillbilly; We want folk singers here.
#20
Hey, hey, Woody Guthrie, I wrote you a song, 'bout a funny ol' world that's a-comin' along
#21
Seems sick an' it's hungry, it's tired an' it's torn, it looks like it's a-dyin' an' it's hardly been born.
#22
Here's to Cisco an' Sonny an' Lead Belly too, an' to all the good people that traveled with you.
#23
here's to the hearts an' the hands of the men, that come with the dust and are gone with the wind.
#24
How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man? How many seas must a white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand?
#25
Yes, and how many years can a mountain exist before it is washed to the sea?
#26
How many times must a man look up before he can really see the sky?
#27
Yes, and how many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died?
#28
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind.
#29
All the money you made will never buy back your soul.
#30
You ain't worth the blood that runs in your veins.
#31
And I drove down 42nd Street in my Cadillac. Good car to drive after a war.
#32
Half of the people can be part right all of the time, Some of the people can be all right part of the time, But all the people can't be all right all the time. I think Abraham Lincoln said that. I'll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours. I said that.
#33
I gave her my heart but she wanted my soul.
#34
So if you're travelin' in the north country fair, Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline, Remember me to one who lives there. She once was a true love of mine.
#35
The times they are a-changin'.
#36
Don't criticize what you can't understand.
#37
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command.
#38
You never ask questions When God's on your side
#39
You don't count the dead When God's on your side
#40
But if the arrow is straight, And the point is slick, It can pierce through dust no matter how thick.
#41
All I really want to do is baby be friends with you.
#42
Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.
#43
I like Fidel Castro and his beard.
#44
Johnny's in the basement Mixing up the medicine I'm on the pavement Thinking about the government The man in the trenchcoat Badge out, laid off Says he's got a bad cough Wants to get it paid off Look out kid It's somethin' you did God knows when But you're doin' it again
#45
You don't need a weather man To know which way the wind blows
#46
Get jailed, jump bail Join the army, if you fail
#47
Don't follow leaders Watch the parkin' meters
#48
Twenty years of schoolin' And they put you on the day shift
#49
The pump don't work 'Cause the vandals took the handles
#50
She's got everything she needs, she's an artist, she don't look back.
#51
She could take the dark out the nighttime and paint the daytime black.
#52
There's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all.
#53
She knows too much to argue or to judge.
#54
Don't ask me nothin' about nothin'. I just might tell you the truth.
#55
Oh, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free.
#56
It's not aimed at anyone, it's just escapin' on the run
#57
And if you hear vague traces of skipping reels of rhyme...
#58
Take me disappearing, through the smoke rings of my mind, down the foggy ruins of time...
#59
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves, let me forget about today until tomorrow.
#60
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me. I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to. Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me. In the jingle-jangle morning, I'll come following you.
#61
Let me forget about today until tomorrow.
#62
All and all can only fall with a crashing but meaningless blow.
#63
And there are no truths outside the Gates of Eden.
#64
Of war and peace the truth just twists. Its curfew gull just glides.
#65
Money doesn't talk, it swears. Obscenity, who really cares? Propaganda all is phoney.
#66
He not busy being born is busy dying.
#67
Even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.
#68
It is not he or she or them or it that you belong to.
#69
Disillusioned words like bullets bark As human gods aim for their marks. Make everything from toy guns that spark To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark. It's easy to see without looking too far that not much is really sacred.
#70
While others say don't hate nothing at all except hatred
#71
Advertising signs that con you into thinking you're the one That can do what's never been done, That can win what's never been won Meanwhile, outside life goes on all around you
#72
And if my thought-dreams could be seen, they'd probably put my head in a guillotine. But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only.
#73
To understand you know too soon there is no sense in trying.
#74
Although the masters make the rules for the wise men and the fools, I got nothing, Ma, to live up to.
#75
The vagabond who's rapping at your door is standing in the clothes that you once wore.
#76
The lover who just walked out the door has taken all your blankets from off the floor.
#77
Yonder stands your orphan with his gun, crying like a fire on the sun.
#78
You got a lotta nerve to say you are my friend. When I was down, you just stood there grinning.
#79
Do you take me for such a fool to think I'd make contact with one that tries to hide what he don't know to begin with.
#80
I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes. You'd know what a drag it is to see you.
#81
Go to him now, he calls you, you can't refuse. When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose. You're invisible now. You've got no secrets to conceal.
#82
How does it feel? To be without a home, like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone.
#83
Once upon a time you dressed so fine, threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you. People call, say beware doll, you're bound to fall, you thought they were all, kiddin you.
#84
Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people, they're drinkin', thinkin' that they got it made
#85
The sun's not yellow, it's chicken.
#86
And if I don't make it, you know my baby will.
#87
Well, I wanna be your lover, baby, I don't wanna be your boss.
#88
And you say, Oh my God, am I here all alone?
#89
You've been with the professors and they've all liked your looks. With great lawyers you've discussed lepers and crooks.
#90
You go watch the geek, who immediately walks up to you when he hears you speak, and says, how does it feel to be such a freak?, and you say, impossible as he hands you a bone.
#91
And something is happening here, but you don't know what it is, do you Mr. Jones?
#92
Oh God said to Abraham, Kill me a son. Abe says, Man, you must be puttin' me on. God say, No. Abe say, What? God say, You can do what you want Abe, but the next time you see me comin' you better run. Well Abe says, Where do you want this killin' done? God says, Out on Highway 61.
#93
Up on Housing Project Hill, it's either fortune or fame. You must pick one or the other, though neither of them are to be what they claim.
#94
Yes, I received your letter yesterday (About the time the door knob 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
#95
Now at midnight all the agents, and the superhuman crew, come out and round up everyone, that knows more then they do.
#96
But I would not feel so all alone, everybody must get stoned!
#97
Somebody got lucky, but it was an accident.
#98
Oh Mama, can this really be the end? To be stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again?
#99
And 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.
#100
The one was Texas medicine. The other was just railroad gin. And, like a fool, I mixed them and it strangled up my mind and now people just get uglier and I have no sense of time.
#101
Your debutante just know what you need, but I know what you want.
#102
Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're trying to be so quiet.
#103
We sit here stranded, though we're all doin' our best to deny it.
#104
Inside the museums, 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.
#105
The ghost of 'lectricity howls in the bones of her face.
#106
Name me someone that's not a parasite and I'll go out and say a prayer for him.
#107
But to live outside the law, you must be honest.
#108
Yes, I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes; you'd know what a drag it is to see you!
#109
Lay, lady, lay. Lay across my big, brass bed.
#110
Whatever colors you have in your mind. I'll show them to you and you'll see them shine.
#111
His clothes are dirty, but his hands are clean, and you're the best thing that he's ever seen.
#112
You can have your cake and eat it, too.
#113
Stay, lady, stay. Stay while the night is still ahead.
#114
Ev'rybody's in despair, Ev'ry girl and boy But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here, Ev'rybody's gonna jump for joy.
#115
Come all without, come all within, You'll not see nothing like the mighty Quinn.
#116
I like to do just like the rest, I like my sugar sweet, but guarding fumes and making haste, it ain't my cup of meat.
#117
A cat's meow and a cow's moo, I can recite 'em all, just tell me where it hurts you, honey,
#118
May you build a ladder to the stars and climb on every rung. May you stay forever young.
#119
I paid the price of solitude but at least I'm out of debt.
#120
I hate myself for loving you.
#121
Early one mornin' the sun was shinin', I was layin' in bed Wond'rin'if she'd changed at all If her hair was still red.
#122
Tangled up in blue...
#123
Lord knows I've paid some dues gettin' through...
#124
I helped her out of a jam, I guess, but I used a little too much force...
#125
And every one of them words rang true and glowed like burnin' coal. Pourin' off of every page, like it was written in my soul from me to you...
#126
The only thing I knew how to do was to keep on keepin' on like a bird that flew...
#127
All the people we used to know, they're an illusion to me now...
#128
Don't know how it all got started, I don't know what they do with their lives...
#129
We always did feel the same, we just saw it from a different point of view...
#130
But all the while I was alone The past was close behind, I seen a lot of women But she never escaped my mind,
#131
I lived with them on Montague Street In a basement down the stairs There was music in the cafes at night And revolution in the air.
#132
You're an idiot, babe. It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.
#133
I can't help it if I'm lucky.
#134
Visions of your chestnut mare shoot through my head and are makin' me see stars.
#135
I waited for you on the running boards, near the cypress trees, while the springtime turned slowly into autumn.
#136
Idiot wind, blowing through the buttons of our coats, blowing through the letters that we wrote. Idiot wind, blowing through the dust upon our shelves, We're idiots, babe. It's a wonder we can even feed ourselves.
#137
Like a corkscrew to my heart...
#138
A change in the weather is known to be extreme; but what's the sense in changing horses in mid-stream?
#139
Time is a jetplane -- it moves too fast. Oh but what a shame that all we've shared can't last...
#140
Love is so simple, to quote a phrase; you've known it all the time, I'm learnin' it these days.
#141
Beauty walks a razor's edge, someday I'll make it mine.
#142
Try imagining a place where it's always safe and warm...
#143
'Come in', she said, 'I'll give you shelter from the storm.'
#144
I always have respected her for doin' what she did and gettin' free
#145
If your mem'ry serves you well, we were gonna meet again and wait, so I think I'll just unpack my bags and sit before it gets too late.
#146
If your memory serves you well, I was gonna confiscate your lace and wrap it up in a sailor's knot and hide it in your case.
#147
If your memory serves you well, I remember you're the one who called out me to call out them to get your business done.
#148
Wheels on fire, rolling down the road, best notify my next of kin, this wheel shall explode!
#149
Take care of all your memories. said my friend Mick, For you cannot relive them.
#150
Here comes the story of The Hurricane, the man the authorities came to blame for something that he never done. Put in a prison cell, but one time he coulda been the champion of the world.
#151
Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land, where justice is a game.
#152
There's lots of pretty girls in Mozambique.
#153
The enemy is subtle, how be it we're deceived? When the truth's in our hearts and we still don't believe?
#154
Truth is an arrow and the gate is narrow...that it passes through
#155
In the home of the brave, Jefferson turnin' over in his grave, Fools glorifying themselves, trying to manipulate Satan
#156
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man. Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand.
#157
Take the motherless children off the streets.
#158
A woman just gave birth to a prince today and dressed him in scarlet.
#159
Freedom just around the corner for you. But with the truth so far off, what good will it do?
#160
Steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you King.
#161
Sometimes Satan, comes as a man of peace.
#162
Some one else is speaking with my mouth, but I'm listening only to my heart.
#163
Yesterday's just a memory; tomorrow's never what it's supposed to be.
#164
For man has invented his doom, the first step was touching the moon.
#165
What looks large from a distance, close up is never that big.
#166
Oh, time is short and the days are sweet and passion rules the arrow that flies.
#167
I've been deceived by the clown inside of me. I thought that he was righteous but he's vain.
#168
My patron saint is a-fighting with a ghost. He's always off somewhere when I need him most.
#169
Let me feel your love one more time before I abandon it.
#170
I was just too stubborn to ever be governed by enforced insanity.
#171
The old Rounder in the iron mask slipped me the master key, somebody had to unlock your heart, he said it was up to me.
#172
It frightens me the awful truth of how sweet life can be.
#173
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.
#174
Somebody's got to cry some tears, I guess it must be up to me.
#175
I saw a movie one time I think it starred Gregory Peck.
#176
People don't do what they believe in, they just do what's most convenient, then they repent.
#177
I didn't know whether to duck or to run, so I ran.
#178
Oh, the tree of life is growing where the spirit never dies
#179
Tweeter and the Monkey Man were hard up for cash They stayed up all night selling cocaine and hash To an undercover cop who had a sister named Jan Who for reasons unexplained she loved the Monkey Man
#180
We live in a political world
#181
Your mind is your temple, keep it beautiful and free. Don't let an egg get laid in it by something you can't see.
#182
Let me die in my footsteps before I go under the ground.
#183
I'd throw all the guns and the tanks in the sea, for they are mistakes of a past history.
#184
They'll kick you when you're up and knock you when you're down.
#185
When you cease to exist, then who will you blame?
#186
Drinkin' man listens to the voice he hears, In a crowded room full of covered up mirrors, Lookin' into the lost forgotten years For dignity
#187
I'm sick of love but I'm in the thick of it.
#188
It's not dark yet, but it's getting there...
#189
Behind every beautiful thing there is some kind of pain
#190
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
#191
Feel like falling in love with the first woman I meet... Putting her in a wheel barrow and wheeling her down the street.
#192
People are crazy and times are strange/I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range, I used to care, but things have changed.
#193
I've been trying to get as far away from myself as I can
#194
I hurt easy, I just don't show it, you can hurt someone and not even know it
#195
All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie
#196
You can't win with a losing hand
#197
If the Bible is right the world will explode
#198
The future to me is already a thing of the past.
#199
I might need a good lawyer, could be your funeral, my trial Well, I cried for you, now it's your turn, you can cry awhile
#200
If I catch my opponents ever sleepin', I'll just slaughter 'em where they lie.
#201
Gonna forget about myself for a while, gonna go out and see what others need.
#202
Take your clothes, put 'em in a sack. You goin' down the road, baby, and you cant come back. Someday baby, you ain't gonna worry po' me any more.
#203
All I can do is be me, whoever that is.
#204
Basically you have to suppress your own ambitions in order to be who you need to be.
#205
Being noticed can be a burden. Jesus got himself crucified because he got himself noticed. So I disappear a lot.
#206
Folk music is a word I can't use. Folk music is a bunch of fat people.
#207
I accept chaos, I'm not sure whether it accepts me.
#208
I define nothing. Not beauty, not patriotism. I take each thing as it is, without prior rules about what it should be.
#209
I don't think the human mind can comprehend the past and the future. They are both just illusions that can manipulate you into thinking theres some kind of change.
#210
I like to think of myself more as a song and dance man.
#211
I say there're no depressed words just depressed minds.
#212
I think a poet is anybody who wouldn't call himself a poet.
#213
I've never written a political song. Songs can't save the world. I've gone through all that.
#214
If I wasn't Bob Dylan, I'd probably think that Bob Dylan has a lot of answers myself.
#215
I started smoking at 11 years old an' only stopped once to catch my breath.
#216
Just because you like my stuff doesn't mean I owe you anything.
#217
The moment when you reload your rifle.
#218
What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.
#219
When you feel in your gut what you are and then dynamically pursue it- don't back down and don't give up- then you're going to mystify a lot of folks.
#220
What good are fans? You can't eat applause for breakfast. You can't sleep with it.
#221
Interviewer: They say Dylan never talks. Dylan: Well, what the hell is the re to say?
#222
Nostalgia is death.
#223
I'm not disconnected from anything because of a force, just habit, it's just the way I am. I don't know, I have an idea that it's easier to be disconnected than to be connected. I've got a huge hallelujah for all the people who are connected, that's great, but I can't do that. I've been connected so many times. Things haven't worked out right, so rather than break myself up, I just don't get connected
#224

Bob Dylan quotes