Bob Dylan speech at the 2016 Nobel Banquet

dn store ara at the present era at all from noble prince tyranny literature Bob Dylan tallit from fish Oden abrecan's gamba Sodor and Aishwarya azita Raji it is a great honor to introduce a speech from the Nobel laureate in literature mr. Bob Dylan the speech is presented by the ambassador of the United States of America to Sweden Her Excellency azita Raji [Applause] thank you thank you it's a pleasure to be with you tonight for me and to read mr. Bob Dylan's speech in recognition of the honor he has been awarded by the Nobel Committee here it is good evening everyone I extend my warmest greetings to the members of the Swedish Academy and to all of the other distinguished guests in attendance tonight I'm sorry I can't be with you in person but please know that I'm most definitely with you in spirit and honored to be receiving such a prestigious prize being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature is something I never could have imagined or seen coming from an early age I've been familiar with and reading and absorbing the works of those who were deemed worthy of such a distinction Kipling Shaw Thomas Mann Pearl Buck Albert Camus Hemingway these giants of literature whose works are taught in the classroom housed in libraries around the world and spoken of in reverent tones have always made a deep impression that I now join the names on such a list is truly beyond words I don't know if these men and women ever thought of the Nobel Honor for themselves but I suppose that anyone writing a book or a poem or a play anywhere in the world might Harbor that secret dream deep down inside it's probably buried so deep that they don't even know it's there if someone had ever told me that had the slightest chance of winning the Nobel Prize I would have to think that I'd have about the same odds as standing on the moon in fact during the year I was born and for a few years late after there wasn't anyone in the world who was considered good enough to win this Nobel Prize so I recognize that I'm in very rare company to say the least I was out on the road when I received the surprising news and it took me more than a few minutes to properly process it I began to think about William Shakespeare the great literary figure I would reckon he thought of himself as a dramatist the thought that he was writing literature couldn't have entered his head his words were written for the stage meant to be spoken not read when he was writing Hamlet I'm sure he was thinking about a lot of different things who were the right actors for these roles how should this be staged do I really want to set this in Denmark his creative vision and ambitions were no doubt at the forefront of his mind but there were also more mundane matters to consider and deal with is the financing in place are there enough good seats for my patrons where am I going to get a human skull I would bet that the farthest thing from Shakespeare's mind was the question is this literature when I started writing songs as a teenager and even as I started to achieve some renown for my abilities my aspirations for these songs only went so far I thought they could be heard in coffee houses or bars maybe later in places like Carnegie Hall the London Palladium if I was really dreaming big maybe I could imagine getting to make a record and then hearing my songs on the radio that was really the big prize in my mind making records and hearing your songs on the radio meant that you were reaching a big audience and that you might get to keep doing what you had set out to do well I have been doing what I set out to do for a long time now I've made dozens of Records and played thousands of concerts all around the world but it's my songs that are at the vital center of almost everything I do they seem to have found a place in the lives of many people throughout many different cultures and I'm grateful for that but there's one thing I must say as a performer I've played for 50,000 people and I've played for 50 people and I can tell you that it is harder to play for fifty people fifty thousand people have a singular persona not so with fifty each person has an individual separate identity a world onto themselves they can perceive things more clearly your honesty and how it relates to the depth of your talent is tried the fact that the Nobel Committee is so small is not lost on me but like Shakespeare I too am often occupied with the pursuit of my creative endeavors and dealing with all aspects of life's mundane matters who are the best musicians for these songs am i recording in the right studio is this song in the right key some things never change even in 400 years not once have I ever had the time to ask myself are my songs literature so I do thank the Swedish Academy both for taking the time to consider that very question and ultimately for providing such a wonderful answer my very best wishes to you all Bob Dylan [Applause]

Channel: Nobel Prize

Views: 666,475

Rating: 4.79181 out of 5

Keywords: Bob Dylan, nobel prize, nobel prize in literature

Id: Bi3Ws2Qm8ck

Length: 8min 20sec (500 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 15 2016