I Want Another Idea, Another Project, But

I Am A Critic Who Is Pulled Toward History. But Bob Dylan Himself Is A Great Historian. He Is An Historian Who Acts Out History. So It Always Has A Personal Stamp. It Always Has A Particular Timbre. It Always Has A Particular Howl, Or A Moan, In That Voice.

The Sixties Are Most Generously Described As A Time When People Took Part - When They Stepped Out Of Themselves And Acted In Public, As People Who Didn't Know What Would Happen Next, But Who Were Sure That Acts Of True Risk And Fear Would Produce Something Different From What They Had Been Raised To Take For Granted.

It May Be That The Most Interesting American Struggle Is The Struggle To Set Oneself Free From The Limits One Is Born To, And Then To Learn Something Of The Value Of Those Limits

Along With A Lot Of Other Things, Becoming A Bob Dylan Fan Made Me A Writer. I Was Never Interested In Figuring Out What The Songs Meant. I Was Interested In Figuring Out My Response To Them, And Other People's Responses. I Wanted To Get Closer To The Music Than I Could By Listening To It - I Wanted To Get Inside Of It, Behind It, And Writing About It Through It, Inside Of It, Behind It, Was My Way Of Doing That.

No Failure In America, Whether Of Love Or Money, Is Ever Simple; It Is Always A Kind Of Betrayal, Of A Mass Of Shadowy, Shared Hopes.