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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.

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

As I Write, Johnny Rotten's First Moments In "anarchy In The U.k." - A Rolling Earthquake Of A Laugh, A Buried Shout, Then Hoary Words Somehow Stripped Of All Claptrap And Set Down In The City Streets - I Am An Antichrist - Remain As Powerful As Anything I Know. Listening To The Record Today - Listening To The Way Johnny Rotten Tears At His Lines, And Then Hurls The Pieces At The World; Recalling The All-consuming Smile He Produced As He Sang - My Back Stiffens; I Pull Away Even As My Scalp Begins To Sweat.

I Never Could Understand - It Was Impossible For Me To Get My Head Around - What The Furor Was, What The Sense Of Betrayal And Anger And Rage Was About Bob Dylan's Beginning To Perform With A Band, To Play Rock-and-roll, To Get On The Radio.

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.