Hey everyone,
Scroll down for the full text of the Nobel Prize in Literature speech from Bob Dylan in 2016.
Bit of background up top: I don't think it's a spoiler to say the very final text onscreen of the film "A Complete Unknown" starring Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan is a slow fading sentence telling us that Bob Dylan was the first musician to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ... and then there's a pause before a second and ultimately final sentence slowly loads up saying "He did not attend the ceremony."
Then the credits roll! And that's it. LOL.
But imagine, though: You just won the Nobel Prize. And you're like "Nope! Not going." Maybe just finishes with another layer to the already mesmerizing, magical, mercurial performance from Chalamet. I found myself wiping back tears so many times: when 20-year-old Dylan is singing to Woody Guthrie in the opening scene, the Blowin' In The Wind in the apartment scene, the first letter from Johnny Cash ... such a wonderful and striking film by James Mangold.
That last sentence though. Did Bob Dylan really just not go to the Nobel Prize ceremony? I looked it up and he was awarded the Nobel Prize on October 13, 2016. There was a period of controversy afterwards where he apparently just ... didn't respond. A Nobel member even called him 'impolite and arrogant'! But then he evidently wrote a speech yet didn't give it himself. It was spoken by ... the US Ambassador to Sweden? LOL. Yes. On December 10, 2016. That's the speech I've pasted below. I like his thoughts on focus—how aiming for a prize isn't, and maybe *can't be*, what an artist ever intends or guides themselves towards—and his thoughts on how performing for large audiences is easier than small ones. (David Sedaris told me something similar.)
The postscript to the postscript is that Dylan did eventually accept the actual physical prize at a private event in a secret location on April 1, 2017 and then, before the required "six month deadline" (mandatory to claim the 8 million kroner / $900k USD prize), recorded an audio note, which is posted on YouTube. Such an enigma that these little spurts of personal voice resonate deeply.
Here is the full text of Bob Dylan's 2016 Nobel Prize Banquet Speech.
Neil
Bob Dylan's 2016 Nobel Prize Banquet Speech - Full Speech Transcript
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 am 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 schoolroom, 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 I 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 after, there wasn’t anyone in the world who was considered good enough to win this Nobel Prize. So, I recognize that I am in very rare company, to say the least.
I was out on the road when I received this 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’re 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’ve 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 seemed 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 50 people. 50,000 people have a singular persona, not so with 50. Each person has an individual, separate identity, a world unto 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 best wishes to you all,
Bob Dylan
Originally published on Nobelprize.org