Latest Greil Marcus Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• If Bob Dylan really is an historian in and of himself in his work, in his performances, he is also an historian with a unique sense of humor. There's always been a bit of a stand-up comic in him.

  Greil Marcus

  Unique, Bob, Sense Of Humor

  Source: www.barnesandnoble.com

• Think about how rare it is for anyone to encounter a teacher who can open you up to the notion that there is an infinite amount of meaning and possibility and inspiration in the smallest thing before you.

  Greil Marcus

  Teacher, Inspiration, Thinking

  Source: www.barnesandnoble.com

• What always attracted me to [Bob] Dylan, and what has sustained me as a Dylan listener, or has always continued to surprise me, is his voice, the way he sings, the way he wraps his voice around certain words, the way he backs off from melodic moments, the way he moves forward to grab something in a song that, were anybody else performing it, they would have no idea it was even there.

  Greil Marcus

  Song, Moving, Ideas

  Source: www.barnesandnoble.com

• I am a critic who is pulled toward history. But Bob Dylan himself is a great historian. He is an historian who acts out history. So it always has a personal stamp. It always has a particular timbre. It always has a particular howl, or a moan, in that voice.

  Greil Marcus

  Voice, Bob, Timbre

  "Talkin’ Bob Dylan". Interview with James Mustich, www.barnesandnoble.com. October 19, 2010.

• 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.

  Greil Marcus

  Song, Writing, People

  Greil Marcus (2011). “Bob Dylan: Writings 1968-2010”, p.17, Faber & Faber

• 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.

  Greil Marcus

  Betrayal, Rocks, Rock And Roll

  "Talkin’ Bob Dylan". Interview with James Mustich, www.barnesandnoble.com. October 19, 2010.