Bob Dylan

Aretha with no goals, eternally single & one step soft of heaven/ let it be understood that she owns this melody along with her emotional diplomats & her earth & her musical secrets

If I wasn't Bob Dylan, I'd probably think that Bob Dylan has a lot of answers myself.

Some formulas are too complex and I don't want anything to do with them.

I'm the oldest son of a crazy man, I'm in a cowboy band.

My songs are personal music, they're not communal. I wouldn't want people singing along with me. It would sound funny. I'm not playing campfire meetings. I don't remember anyone singing along with Elvis, Carl Perkins or Little Richard.

I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes. You'd know what a drag it is to see you.

That's another way of writing a song, of course. Just talking to somebody that ain't there. That's the best way. That's the truest way. Then it just becomes a question of how heroic your speech is. To me, it's something to strive after.

The government's not going to create jobs. It doesn't have to. People have to create jobs.

Come you masters of war You that build all the guns You that build the death planes You that build the big bombs You that hide behind walls You that hide behind desks I just want you to know I can see through your masks.

There's enough songs for people to listen to, if they want to listen to songs. For every man, woman and child on earth, they could be sent, probaby, each of them, a hundred records, and never be repeated. There's enough songs. Unless someone's gonna come along with a pure heart and has something to say. That's a different story.

No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky.

Now the wintertime is coming The windows are filled with frost I went to tell everybody But I could not get across Well, I wanna be your lover, baby I don't wanna be your boss Don't say I never warned you When your train gets lost.

Crimson flames tied through my ears Rollin' high and mighty traps Pounced with fire on flaming roads Using ideas as my maps "We'll meet on edges, soon," said I Proud 'neath heated brow. Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now. Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth "Rip down all hate," I screamed Lies that life is black and white Spoke from my skull. I dreamed Romantic facts of musketeers Foundationed deep, somehow. Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.

My best songs were written very quickly. Just about as much time as it takes to write it down is about as long as it takes to write it...In writing songs I've learned as much from Cezanne as I have from Woody Guthrie...It's not me, it's the songs. I'm just the postman, I deliver the songs...I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I'll die like a poet.

Doesn't expecting the unexpected make the unexpected expected?

Opportunities may come along for you to convert something - something that exists into something that didn't yet. That might be the beginning of it.

But now we got weapons _x000D_ _x000D_ Of the chemical dust _x000D_ _x000D_ If fire them we're forced to _x000D_ _x000D_ Then fire them we must _x000D_ _x000D_ One push of the button _x000D_ _x000D_ And a shot the world wide _x000D_ _x000D_ And you never ask questions _x000D_ _x000D_ When God's on your side

People talk of situations, read books, repeat quotations.

Come senators, congressmen, Please heed the call, Don't stand in the doorway, Don't block up the hall, For he that gets hurt, Will be he who has stalled, The battle outside ragin', Will soon shake your windows and rattle your walls, For the times they are a-changin'...

Oh, God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"_x000D_ Abe said, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"_x000D_ God said, "No" Abe say, "What?"_x000D_ God say, "You can do what you want, Abe, but_x000D_ The next time you see me comin', you better run"_x000D_ Well, Abe said, "Where d'you want this killin' done?"_x000D_ God said, "Out on Highway 61".

Mona Lisa must have had the highway blues; you can tell by the way she smiles.