Bob Dylan speech at the 2016 Nobel Banquet — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:02[Music]
2. 0:07the
3. 0:21in it is a great honor to introduce a
4. 0:25speech from the Nobel laurate in
5. 0:27literature Mr Bob Dill
6. 0:30the speech is presented by the
7. 0:32ambassador of the United States of
8. 0:35America to Sweden Her Excellency aita
9. 0:39[Applause]
10. 0:52Raji thank
11. 0:54you thank you it's a pleasure to be with
12. 0:58you tonight for me and to read Mr Bob
13. 1:01Dylan's speech in recognition of the
14. 1:04honor he has been awarded by the Nobel
15. 1:07committee here it
16. 1:09is good evening
17. 1:11everyone I extend my warmest greetings
18. 1:14to the members of the Swedish Academy
19. 1:17and to all of the other distinguished
20. 1:19guests in attendance
21. 1:22tonight I'm sorry I can't be with you in
22. 1:25person but please know that I am most
23. 1:29definitely with you you in spirit and
24. 1:32honored to be receiving such a
25. 1:35prestigious
26. 1:36prize being awarded the Nobel Prize for
27. 1:40literature is something I never could
28. 1:42have imagined or seen
29. 1:47coming from an early age I've been
30. 1:50familiar with and reading and absorbing
31. 1:54The Works of those who were deemed
32. 1:56worthy of such a
33. 1:58distinction Kipling Shaw Thomas Man
34. 2:03Pearl Buck Alber kamu Heming
35. 2:08way these Giants of literature whose
36. 2:12works are taught in the classroom housed
37. 2:15in libraries around the world and spoken
38. 2:18of in reverent tones have always made a
39. 2:22deep
40. 2:23impression that I now join the names on
41. 2:27such a list is truly beyond
42. 2:32words I don't know if these men and
43. 2:35women ever thought of the Nobel honor
44. 2:37for themselves but I suppose that anyone
45. 2:40writing a book or a poem or a play
46. 2:44anywhere in the world might Harbor that
47. 2:47secret dream deep down
48. 2:50inside it's probably buried so deep that
49. 2:53they don't even know it's
50. 2:57there if someone had ever told me me
51. 3:00that I had the slightest chance of
52. 3:02winning the Nobel Prize I would have to
53. 3:05think that I'd have about the same odds
54. 3:09as standing on the
55. 3:11moon in fact during the year I was born
56. 3:16and for a few years late after there
57. 3:19wasn't anyone in the world who was
58. 3:23considered good enough to win this Nobel
59. 3:27Prize so I recognize that I'm in very
60. 3:29very rare company to say the
61. 3:33least I was out on the road when I
62. 3:36received this surprising news and it
63. 3:38took me more than a few minutes to
64. 3:40properly process it I began to think
65. 3:43about William Shakespeare the great
66. 3:46literary
67. 3:47figure I would reckon he thought of
68. 3:49himself as a
69. 3:51dramatist the thought that he was
70. 3:53writing literature couldn't have entered
71. 3:55his head his words were written for the
72. 3:59stage
73. 4:00meant to be spoken not
74. 4:05read when he was writing Hamlet I'm sure
75. 4:09he was thinking about a lot of different
76. 4:11things who are the right actors for
77. 4:14these
78. 4:14roles how should this be
79. 4:17staged do I really want to set this in
80. 4:23Denmark his Creative Vision and
81. 4:26Ambitions were no doubt at the Forefront
82. 4:29of his mind mind but there were also
83. 4:32more mundane matters to consider and
84. 4:34deal
85. 4:35with is the financing in place are there
86. 4:39enough good seats for my
87. 4:41patrons where am I going to get a human
88. 4:48skull I would bet that the farthest
89. 4:51thing from Shakespeare's mind was the
90. 4:55question is this literature
91. 5:00when I started writing songs as a
92. 5:02teenager and even as I started to
93. 5:05achieve some Renown for my
94. 5:07abilities my aspirations for these songs
95. 5:10only went so far I thought they could be
96. 5:13heard in coffee houses or bars maybe
97. 5:16later in places like Carnegie Hall the
98. 5:19London
99. 5:20Palladium if I was really dreaming big
100. 5:24maybe I could imagine getting to make a
101. 5:26record and then hearing my songs on the
102. 5:29the
103. 5:30radio that was really the big prize in
104. 5:33my mind making records and hearing your
105. 5:37songs on the radio meant that you were
106. 5:40reaching a big
107. 5:42audience and that you might get to keep
108. 5:44doing what you had set out to
109. 5:48do well I have been doing what I set out
110. 5:52to do for a long time now I've made
111. 5:55dozens of records and played thousands
112. 5:59ofs concerts all around the
113. 6:02world but it's my songs that are at the
114. 6:06Vital Center of almost everything I
115. 6:10do they seem to have found a place in
116. 6:14the lives of many people throughout many
117. 6:17different
118. 6:18cultures and I'm grateful for
119. 6:22that but there's one thing I must
120. 6:25say as a performer I've played for
121. 6:2950,000 people and I've played for 50
122. 6:34people and I can tell you that it is
123. 6:36harder to play for 50
124. 6:39people 50,000 people have a singular
125. 6:43Persona not so with
126. 6:4750 each person has an individual
127. 6:50separate identity a world onto
128. 6:54themselves they can perceive things more
129. 6:57clearly
130. 7:00your honesty and how it relates to the
131. 7:02depth of your talent is
132. 7:05tried the fact that the Nobel committee
133. 7:08is so small is not lost on
134. 7:12me but like
135. 7:14Shakespeare I too am often occupied with
136. 7:18the pursuit of my creative
137. 7:20Endeavors and dealing with all aspects
138. 7:22of life's mundane
139. 7:24matters who are the best musicians for
140. 7:27these songs am I recording in the right
141. 7:31studio is this song in the right
142. 7:35key something's never Chang even in 400
143. 7:39years not once have I ever had the time
144. 7:42to ask myself are my songs
145. 7:47literature so I do thank the Swedish
146. 7:51Academy both for taking the time to
147. 7:54consider that very
148. 7:56question and ultimately
149. 7:59for providing such a wonderful
150. 8:03answer my very best wishes to you all
151. 8:06Bob Dylan
152. 8:08[Applause]