Chaos is a friend of mine.
BOB DYLAN, Newsweek, Dec. 9, 1985
A record ... is a statement, it's its own statement, its own entity, rather than being about something else. If I was a painter ... I don't paint the chair, I would paint feelings about the chair.
BOB DYLAN, Rolling Stone, May 3, 2007
If you don't have to write songs, why write them? I've got enough where I don't really feel the urge to write anything additional.
BOB DYLAN, Rolling Stone, May 3, 2007
The atom bomb fueled the entire world that came after it. It showed that indiscriminate killing and indiscriminate homicide on a mass level was possible ... whereas if you look at warfare up until that point, you had to see somebody to shoot them or maim them, you had to look at them. You don't have to do that anymore.
BOB DYLAN, Rolling Stone, May 3, 2007
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.
BOB DYLAN, Weekly World News, Oct. 1, 1996
- Well, I sing by night, wander by day.
- I'm on the road and it looks like I'm here to stay.
BOB DYLAN, "Endless Highway"
There's a wall between you and what you want and you got to leap it.
BOB DYLAN, "Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar"
- Beyond here lies nothin'
- But the mountains of the past
BOB DYLAN, "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'"
Tomorrow is never what it’s supposed to be.
BOB DYLAN, "Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight"
Some things are too terrible to be true.
Bob Dylan, "Honest With Me"
- “There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief
- “There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief
- Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth
- None of them along the line know what any of it is worth”
BOB DYLAN, "All Along the Watchtower"
- Dead man, dead man
- When will you arise?
- Cobwebs in your mind
- Dust upon your eyes
BOB DYLAN, "Dead Man, Dead Man"
- Oh, the tree of life is growing
- Where the spirit never dies
- And the bright light of salvation shines
- In dark and empty skies
BOB DYLAN, "Death Is Not the End"
- I gaze into the doorway of temptation’s angry flame
- And every time I pass that way I always hear my name
BOB DYLAN, "Every Grain of Sand"
- How many roads must a man walk down
- Before you call him a man?
BOB DYLAN, "Blowin' in the Wind"
There’s eyes behind the mirrors in empty places.
- The walls of pride are high and wide
- Can’t see over to the other side
BOB DYLAN, "Cold Irons Bound"
- All the tired horses in the sun
- How'm I supposed to get any ridin' done? Hmm.
BOB DYLAN, "All the Tired Horses"
- 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
BOB DYLAN, "Ballad in Plain D"
- Feel like a broke-down engine, ain't got no drivin' wheel.
- You all been down and lonesome, you know just how a poor man feels.
BOB DYLAN, "Broke Down Engine"
- There are those who worship loneliness, I’m not one of them
- In this age of fiberglass I’m searching for a gem
- The crystal ball up on the wall hasn’t shown me nothing yet
- I’ve paid the price of solitude, but at last I’m out of debt
- Many a year has passed and gone
- And many a gamble has been lost and won
- And many a road taken by many a friend
- And each one I’ve never seen again
BOB DYLAN, "Bob Dylan's Dream"
- How many times have you heard someone say
- If I had his money I'd do things my way
- Hmm, but little they know
- Hmm, it's so hard to find
- One rich man in ten with a satisfied mind.
BOB DYLAN, "A Satisfied Mind"
- Well, it’s always been my nature to take chances
- My right hand drawing back while my left hand advances
- You know what they say about bein’ nice to the right people on the way up
- Sooner or later you gonna meet them comin’ down
BOB DYLAN, "Foot of Pride"
- I can still see the day that you came to me on the painted desert
- In your busted down Ford and your platform heels
- I could never figure out why you chose that particular place to meet
- Ah, but you were right. It was perfect as I got in behind the wheel
BOB DYLAN, "Brownsville Girl"
Well the future for me is already a thing of the past.
- Peace will come
- With tranquillity and splendor on the wheels of fire
- But will bring us no reward when her false idols fall
- And cruel death surrenders with its pale ghost retreating
- Between the King and the Queen of Swords
BOB DYLAN, "Changing of the Guards"
Reality has always had too many heads.
BOB DYLAN, "Cold Irons Bound"
- You’re gonna have to serve somebody
- Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
- But you’re gonna have to serve somebody
BOB DYLAN, "Gotta Serve Somebody"
- Every day is the same thing out the door
- Feel further away then ever before
- Some things in life, it gets too late to learn
- Well, I’m lost somewhere
- I must have made a few bad turns
- Oh, the inmates and the prisoners
- I found they were my kind
- And it was there inside the bars
- I found my peace of mind
- But the jails they were too crowded
- Institutions overflowed
- So they turned me loose to walk upon
- Life’s hurried tangled road
BOB DYLAN, "Ballad of Donald White"
- I'm touched with desire
- What don't I do?
- I'll throw the logs on the fire
- I'll build my world around you
BOB DYLAN, "Beyond the Horizon"
People don’t do what they believe in, they just do what’s most convenient, then they repent.
BOB DYLAN, "Brownsville Girl"
- They kill people here who stand up for their rights
- The system’s just too damned corrupt
- It’s always the same, the name of the game
- Is who do you know higher up
BOB DYLAN, "Band of the Hand"
- Feeling funny in my mind, Lord
- I believe I'm fixing to die
- Well, I don't mind dying
- But I hate to leave my children crying
- Well, I look over yonder to that burying ground
- Look over yonder to that burying ground
- Sure seems lonesome, Lord, when the sun goes down
BOB DYLAN, "Fixin' To Die"
- I practice a faith that's been long abandoned
- Ain't no altars on this long and lonesome road
BOB DYLAN, "Ain't Talkin'"
- I know this dream, it might be crazy
- But it’s the only one I’ve got
BOB DYLAN, "Emotionally Yours"
- Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
- The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
BOB DYLAN, "Chimes of Freedom"
- There’s a whole lot of people in trouble tonight
- From the disease of conceit
- Whole lot of people seeing double tonight
- From the disease of conceit
- Give ya delusions of grandeur
- And a evil eye
- Give you the idea that
- You’re too good to die
- Then they bury you from your head to your feet
- From the disease of conceit
BOB DYLAN, "Disease of Conceit"
- I love you pretty baby
- You're the only love I've ever known
- Just as long as you stay with me
- The whole world is my throne
- Beyond here lies nothin'
- Nothin' we can call our own
BOB DYLAN, "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'"
Oh, time is short and the days are sweet and passion rules the arrow that flies.
- Old New York City is a friendly old town
- From Washington Heights to Harlem on down
- There’s a-mighty many people all millin’ all around
- They’ll kick you when you’re up and knock you when you’re down
- It’s hard times in the city
- Livin’ down in New York town
BOB DYLAN, "Hard Times in New York Town"
- Sometimes I’m thinkin’ I’m
- Too high to fall
- Other times I’m thinkin’ I’m
- So low I don’t know
- If I can come up at all
BOB DYLAN, "Black Crow Blues"
- 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
BOB DYLAN, "Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight"
- Life is sad
- Life is a bust
- All ya can do is do what you must
BOB DYLAN, "Buckets of Rain"
