love at first sight isn't really love, because you can't love someone until you know them

What did I learn from my first love experience? I learned that I was an idiot.

Those kind of first experiences, where men and- you know, people kinda fall in love is that's where you find out a lot about yourself. I think we kinda use each other in a way, a healthy way.

whether the relationships work out or not. You find out so much about your inner life, that non-romantic friendships don't ever ask of you.

...really falling in love gets down to the essence of you touches some kind of ... something deep within you that only previously your parents had touched.

hottest state interview for artisan news service

It's just a fad, part of the teen, teenage angst brigade

I wanted a song that people could perceive as a love song, while the lyrics are actually very angry. That song is about not being able to establish a relationship with anyone, not being able to experience love outside of family. I've been with girls but only for short periods of time because I'm a but scared of commitment, so after a month it's like.....
I'm scared that if I really like someone it won't happen, so I cut it short. A lot of the time it just feels like it's not real love. We've got girls screaming and stuff, girls saying they love us, but I think they're in love with the idea of being in love with someone onstage or in love with people they see in magazines or on television. That's not real - it's totally false.

interview with paul elliot - march 1999

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

yer gonna make me lonesome when you go

Situations have ended sad

Relationships have all been bad

Mine’ve been like Verlaine’s and Rimbaud

But there’s no way I can compare

All those scenes to this affair

Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go

Yer gonna make me wonder what I’m doin’

Stayin’ far behind without you

Yer gonna make me wonder what I’m sayin’

Yer gonna make me give myself a good talkin’ to

vanessa paradis

“He’s above all a real musician. With his band, he crossed the US in a broken down car, he’s always loved that. He’s a very good guitarist. Like everything he takes on, music or acting, he does it better than anyone. He does it with his guts, and he has nice guts!”

"First of all, you have to be lucky enough to find the right person. Next, the fact that we’re not together every day plays a big part in keeping our relationship stable. And then we also have a lot of respect and admiration for each other. We understand that, if we want our relationship to continue, we must give each other space, allow each other to go off on our own, and trust each other."

"You’re really lucky if you find someone you can trust when you spend time apart. But it’s more complicated than that. Keeping love alive should be like the way you live your life: you don’t eat the same meal every day, you don’t read the same book, you don’t listen to the same CD. When you are a couple, you need to go off alone and discover things for yourself."

"I could make an endless list of all the things I admire about him, but above all I admire his immense loyalty. I love watching him when he’s thoughtful or involved in something. I love observing him when he is talking to people. I love seeing how he deals with situations… I could go on and on, tell you I admire him as an actor, as a father and as the man he is for me. But more than anything, I admire him as a person. Not only when he is talking to me or his mother, but as a person in the world, in all kinds of situations. I think he is magnificent. Truly magnificent."

Marie Claire UK - August 2010

fame is a bullshit trap

The only thing worth doing in moderation is fame because it's such a bullshit trap. If you're famous you have to play a lot of places all year. You live in a lot of hotels. You have no family. You have a lot of empty relationships with women which you can't fulfill because you're only one day in each place. Fame is really a trap unless it's done in moderation. With drinking or sex you can forget about moderation, but anyone who is creative is chained to fame. It's terrible.

I haven't deliberately avoided fame. It's just that I'm too odd for the white middle-class. But I'm happy. I get to create. There's nobody like me so they've got to keep me around. It's like the predicament of Roland Kirk. Nobody's going to cut Roland but 300,000 people aren't going to go to his concerts like they might go to a Stones concert. Roland's expressing too much for people to accept.

september 1972. interview with steve turner for mojo

keep sharing ideas

I recently came across this quote of mine from 22 years ago:

"What it comes down to for me is this: Will the technologies of communication in our culture, serve to enlighten us and help us to understand one another better, or will they deceive us and keep us apart?”

I believe this is still a supremely relevant question and the jury is out. There is a lot of commercial clutter on the net, and a lot of propaganda, but I have a sense that just beneath the surface understanding is gaining ground. We just have to keep blogging, keep twittering, keep communicating, keep sharing ideas.

30 Years ago when I wrote The Wall I was a frightened young man. Well not that young, I was 36 years old.

It took me a long time to get over my fears. Anyway, in the intervening years it has occurred to me that maybe the story of my fear and loss with it’s concomitant inevitable residue of ridicule, shame and punishment, provides an allegory for broader concerns.: Nationalism, racism, sexism, religion, Whatever!  All these issues and ‘isms are driven by the same fears that drove my young life.

This new production of The Wall is an attempt to draw some comparisons, to illuminate our current predicament, and is dedicated to all the innocent lost in the intervening years.

In some quarters, among the chattering classes, there exists a cynical view that human beings as a collective are incapable of developing more ‘humane’ ie, kinder, more generous, more cooperative, more empathetic relationships with one another.

I disagree.

In my view it is too early in our story to leap to such a conclusion, we are after all a very young species.

I believe we have at least a chance to aspire to something better than the dog eat dog ritual slaughter that is our current response to our institutionalized fear of each other.

I feel it is my responsibility as an artist to express my, albeit guarded, optimism, and encourage others to do the same. To quote the great man, "You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one."

Roger Waters, 2010

living an ordinary life

Yeah, I don't know, there's a tremendous amount of energy that goes in to living an ordinary life,...from which all other things about your life come. Just, relationships with people you care about, or your enemies, or, you know, strangers, or people who claim to be your friends and lie, or people who... you know, all kinds of things. So, that's enough.

August, 1995, by RRR Radio