my sympathy runs to the lame and crippled and beautiful things

I don't know about other people's sympathy, but my sympathy runs to the lame and crippled and beautiful things. I have a feeling of loss of power - something like a reincarnation feeling; I don't feel that for mechanical things like cars or schools.

Bob Dylan - Playboy Interview - February 1966

the original vagabond you strayed into my arms and there you stayed

i'd really like to know more about joan baez and bob dylans relationship

DYLAN: Yeah, it was mostly rejected footage, which I found beauty in. Which probably tells you more-that I see beauty where other people don't.

PLAYBOY: That reminds us of a poem you wrote for the jacket of an early Joan Baez album, in which you claimed that you always thought something had to be ugly before you found it beautiful. And at some point in the poem, you described listening to Joan sing and suddenly deciding that beauty didn't have to start out by being ugly

DYLAN: I was very hung up on Joan at the time [Pause] I think I was just trying to tell myself I wasn't hung up on her.

playboy interview

As I remember your eyes 

Were bluer than robin's eggs 

My poetry was lousy you said 

Where are you calling from? 

A booth in the midwest 

Ten years ago 

I bought you some cufflinks 

You brought me something 

We both know what memories can bring 

They bring diamonds and rust

Well you burst on the scene 

Already a legend 

The unwashed phenomenon 

The original vagabond 

You strayed into my arms 

And there you stayed 

Temporarily lost at sea 

The Madonna was yours for free 

Yes the girl on the half-shell 

Would keep you unharmed

Now you're telling me 

You're not nostalgic 

Then give me another word for it 

You who are so good with words 

And at keeping things vague 

Because I need some of that vagueness now 

It's all come back too clearly 

Yes I loved you dearly 

And if you're offering me diamonds and rust 

I've already paidd

you tend to look deeper and deeper inside yourself to find the music

Being a musician means-depending on how far you go-getting to the depths of where you are at. And most any musician would try anything to get to those depths, because playing music is an immediate thing-as opposed to putting paint on a canvas, which is a calculated thing. Your spirit flies when you are playing music. So, with music, you tend to look deeper and deeper inside yourself to find the music. That's why, I guess, grass was around those clubs. I know the whole scene has changed now; I mean, pot is almost a legal thing. But in the old days, it was just for a few people.

playboy interview - march 1966