A Complete Unknown Quotes

Joan Baez Pick something appropriate.

Bob Dylan Appropriate?

Joan Baez Just fuck off and sing.

Bob Dylan Two hundred people in that room and each one wants me to be somebody else. They should just fuck off and let me be.

Bobby Neuwirth Be what?

Bob Dylan Excuse me?

Bobby Neuwirth They should fuck off and let you be what?

Bob Dylan I don't know. Whatever it is they don't want me to be.

Bobby Neuwirth Y'know, I'm not a horse, so... I don't like carrying other people's weight.

Bob Dylan Yeah, well, I got a hundred pounds on me that don't show on the scale.

Bobby Neuwirth How do you sing then?

Bob Dylan I put myself in another place. But I'm a stranger there.

Taglines The ballad of a true original.

Bob Dylan Your songs are like an oil painting at the dentist's office.

Bob Dylan I don't think they want to hear what I want to play.

Johnny Cash Who's they?

Bob Dylan You know, the people who decide what folk music is or isn't.

Johnny Cash Fuck them, I wanna hear you. Go track some mud on somebody's carpet. Make some noise, B.D.

Sylvie Russo It was fun to be on the carnival train with you, Bobby, but I think I gotta step off. I feel like one of those plates, you know, that the French guy spins on those sticks on the Sullivan show.

Bob Dylan Oh, I like that guy.

Sylvie Russo I'm sure it's fun to be the guy, Bob. But I was a plate.

Bob Dylan Dear Johnny, Thanks for that letter. I am now famous -- famous by the rules of public famiosity. It snuck up on me and pulverized me. To quote Mr. Freud, I get quite paranoid.

Johnny Cash Bob -- Got your letter. Tonight I sit in the wake of one more hard rain. I was in New York last week. Saw a bunch of folk singers that couldn't hold a chigger on your ass. Well, I'll see you in Newport come spring. Until then, track mud on somebody's carpet.

Dave Van Ronk You can call it country or blues or rock'n'roll - we all keep rewriting the same song.

Pete Seeger More and more people have been showing up, and they're bringing their teaspoons. Teaspoons for justice, and teaspoons for peace, and teaspoons for love, and that's what we do. And, gosh, you showed up, Bobby, and damn it, if you didn't bring a shovel.

Sylvie Russo What do you want to be?

Bob Dylan A musician. Who eats.

Sylvie Russo Well, I like your songs.

Bob Dylan My record comes out in a couple weeks.

Sylvie Russo Some of the songs you played today on your record?

Bob Dylan It's mostly covers. It's traditional stuff. Y'know, folk songs are supposed to stand the test of time, like ] or something. They say no one wants to hear what a kid wrote last month.

Sylvie Russo Who's they'?

Bob Dylan The record company. Manager.

Sylvie Russo I'm sorry, but, "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" is not Shakespeare. There was a time when the old songs were new, right? Someone at some point had to give the songs a chance. I mean, there's a civil war going on down south. The biggest military buildup in history. Nuclear bombs hanging over us. It's not all about the Dust Bowl and Johnny Appleseed anymore.

Joan Baez You know, you're kind of an asshole, Bob.

Bob Dylan Everyone asks where these songs come from, Sylvie. But then you watch their faces, and they're not asking where the songs come from. They're asking why the songs didn't come to them.

Joan Baez Who taught you to play?

Bob Dylan I taught myself, really. Picked up a few licks at the carnival.

Joan Baez At the carnival?

Bob Dylan Oh yeah, there was singing cowboys that come through teach me all sorts of funny chords. They'd pass through doin shows in Kansas or Dakotas. These chords I learned from a cowboy named Wigglefoot.

Joan Baez You were in a carnival? You are so completely full of shit.

Joan Baez Well you finally got it.

Bob Dylan Got what?

Joan Baez Freedom from us and all our shit. Isn't that what you wanted?

Taglines He defied everyone to change everything.