13 May 2024, Los Angeles, USA
The rules of the Webby Awards is that acceptance speeches have to be 5 words long:
Listen to old ladies motherfuckers!
Fiona Apple: 'This world is bullshit', MTV Awards - 1997
4 September 1997, USA, Radio City Music Hall, New York, USA
Oh man, I didn't prepare a speech and I'm sorry but I'm glad I didn't because I'm not gonna do this like everybody else does it. 'Cause everybody that I should be thanking - I'm really sorry - but I have to use this time. See, Maya Angelou said that we, as human beings, at our best, can only create opportunities. And I'm gonna use this opportunity the way that I want to use it.
So, what I want to say is - um, everybody out there that's watching, everybody that's watching this world? This world is bullshit. And you shouldn’t model your life — wait a second — you shouldn’t model your life about what you think that we think is cool and what we’re wearing and what we’re saying and everything. Go with yourself. Go with yourself.
And there's just a few people that I want to say something to. I want to say, Mama, I love you I'm so glad that we're becoming friends. Amber, you're my sister, you're my best friend. Andrew Slater - no one else could have produced this album, and no one else did. Um...
And it's just stupid that I'm in this world, but you're all very cool to me so thank you very much. And I'm sorry for all the people that I didn't thank, but man...it's good. Bye.
Sean Connery: 'Life is good, but isn't the third act shit?', AFI Lifetime Acheivement - 2006
8 June 2006, Los Angeles, California, USA
Well, wow, [clutches, chest - puffed from dancing] getting on a bit.
I had no idea that this was such a big deal. When Howard, that's Mr. Stringer called me and said, 'the AFI has chosen you for this award.' Well, I just had no idea.
And then I was given a list of the people who'd received this fantastic honour, and I began to get a bit nervous, but not as nervous as I am at this moment. I mean it sincerely.
The Academy Awards is something else because you can hide. There are winners and losers and other people to blame. But the AFI, you're on your own and well, I'm here and I'm very happy you are all here too. And I thank you for bringing my family and friends together for tonight. My family, Micheline, my beautiful wife, some of our children, you are on your own life achievement.
I'm more than pleased that you like my work. I have to admit that it looked pretty damn good from where I was sitting, and it brought back to me lots of terrific memories. Memories of working with people who are fun and industrious, talented and enthusiastic.
These are all the qualities that I find admirable.
The rest of you, well, you know who you are. Making movies is either a utopia or it's like shovelling shit uphill. And tonight, I suppose we put down our shovels and remembered the good times, and well, I've had many.
My start, my childhood was less than auspicious, but when I was young, we didn't know we lacked anything, because we had nothing to compare it to. And there's a freedom in that.
I had a very hard working mother and father. I think of them both a great deal. I got my break, big break when I was five years old, and it's taken me more than 70 years to realise it. You see, at five, I learned to read. It's that simple and it's that profound. I left school at 13, I didn't have a formal education, and I believe I would not be standing here tonight without the books, the plays, the scripts.
It's been a long journey from Fountain Bridge to this evening with you all, Though my feet are tired, my heart is not. A few months ago, I was in London. I was having a great lunch with my very first agent. He's older than me. Suddenly he said to me, 'Sean, life is good, but isn't the third act shit.'
I suppose he has a point, but not tonight! I thank you all, my family, friends for one hell of an evening. Good night.
Brendan Fraser: 'Where were you for Furry Vengeance?', The Whale, Critics Choice Awards - 2023
16 January 2023, Los Angeles, California, USA
It was Herman Melville who once wrote that there are only five critics in America, the rest are asleep. I don't know what it means either, but I'm sure glad you woke up for me. Where were you for Furry Vengeance?
This movie, The Whale is about love, it's about redemption, and it's about finding the light in a dark place. And I'm so lucky to have worked with an ensemble that is incredible, and includes Hong Chau, who should have her own movie based on every character she's ever played, and Sadie Sink who is [...] incredible. How, how, who are you? Your talent precedes your age, it took me 32 years to get here.
Ty Simpkins, you won the game ball every day. Sam Hunter, you're my lighthouse. And Darren Aronofsky, I was in the wilderness, and I probably should have left a trail of breadcrumbs but you found me, and like all the best directors you merely just showed me where to go to get to where I needed to be.
If you are like a guy like Charlie that I played in this movie in any way struggle with obesity, or you just feel like you're in a dark sea. I want you to know that if you too can have the strength to just get to your feet and go to the light, good things will happen.
Joan Bakewell: 'it all began with Charlotte Bronte', BAFTA acceptance speech - 2019
12 May 2019, London, United Kingdom
BAFTA, thank you for this, the greatest of honours. I'm really very moved by it.
But it all began with Charlotte Bronte. People perhaps don't realise how subversive a character Jane Eyre is, calling as she does for the right of women to express themselves as much as men do.
Well, I took in that message from the age of 12, and it's been with me ever since.
So it has been a long journey, and along the way I have had the encouragement and the professional support of many, many women, making their own bid to as much a chance as men, and possibly earn as much. That would be nice. I owe them all a great deal.
It's also been an exhilarating journey, one all of you here tonight, and those of you working in film and television, do actually share with me. Creativity is the human spark that gives meaning to life. There's nothing more exhilarating than coming together with a crowd of people of different talents to create a work together for others to enjoy, whether it's a cathedral, a symphony, a sculpture or a television programme.
When it's a success, and tonight bears witness to what feels like a golden age of television, then it enriches all our individual lives and the culture of this country.
We have all made the right choice in working in this wonderful business. Thank you for the chance to be one of you.
Anna Paquin: 'i'd like to thank Jane, Jan and Holly', Academy Award acceptance - 1994
21 March 1994, Dorothy Chandler Pavillion, Los Angeles, USA
[Long excited silence]
I'd like to thank the Academy for the honor of letting me be here today. I'd like to thank Jane, Jan and Holly for making this all possible. I'd like thank Eddie Campbell, Pat Quirke, and Beanie* for taking such good care of me during the making of the film.
Pawel Pawlikowski: 'I would like to dedicate it to my late wife', Oscars Acceptance - 2015
22 February 2015, Dolby Theatre, Los Angeles, California, USA
Ah, god. How did I get here? We made a film about – as you saw, black and white – about the need for silence and withdrawal from the world and contemplation. And here we are at the epicenter of noise and world attention. Fantastic, you know, life is full of surprises.
So, I'd like to thank the Academy. I'm honored, surprised and overwhelmed. I'd like to thank the people who backed our film: the producers, Eric Abraham of Portobello, Piotr Dzieciol, Agnieszka Odorowicz of the Polish Film Institute, and many others. They backed – oh, and a U.S. distributor who did a great job [music begins to play] for very little money. Oh, wrap up. Good, okay. So, quickly to the… And to my Polish friends who are in front of the TV. The crew who were in the trenches with us and who are totally drunk now. And you are fantastic, you were brilliant. You carried me through this film. And you are what I love about Poland. You're resilient, courageous, brave and funny. [Music builds to a loud crescendo.] And you can take a drink. And "Ida," I would like to dedicate it to my late wife [music ends] and my parents, who are not among the living but who are totally inside this film, and they have a lot to do with the film. And my children, who are hopefully watching, who are still alive. [Audience applause builds loudly.] Thank you, thank you. Victor and Maria... [Music begins again.] Victor and Maria, I love you. You are the main prize. Thank you.
Patty Duke - 'But the best words I ever learned, were hello, enthusiasm and thank you', Emmy Award acceptance - 1970
7 June 1970, Los Angeles, California, USA
Duke was the first actress to win for a telemovie role. She was criticised at the time for being on drugs for this speech. She later spoke of battling a bipolar disorder.
Thank you
Thank you.
Thank you Mr Evans?
I know your over there somewhere.
You, mom, Happy birthday.
I've also been taught not to say thank you for too long.
But the best words I ever learned, were hello, enthusiasm and thank you.
Tyler Joseph: 'If we ever win a Grammy, we should receive it just like this', twenty one pilots acceptance, Grammys - 2017
12 February 2017, Staples Centre, Los Angeles, USA
This story it starts in Colombus Ohio, and it was a few years ago, and it was before josh and I were able to make money playing music, and I called him up, and I said, ‘hey Josh do you want to come over to my rental house and watch the Grammys’, and he said ‘yeah, who’s hanging there?’ and I said ‘It’s a couple of my roommates, just come and watch the Grammys with us.’
As we were watching we noticed that every single one of us was in our underwear.
And seriously, Josh turned to me, we were no one at the time, he turned to me and said, ‘you know if we ever go to the Grammys, if we ever win a Grammy, we should receive it just like this.’
So not only this amazing, but I want everyone who’s watching at home to know, that you could be next. So watch out, okay?
Because anyone, from anywhere, can do anything.
And this is that.
full transcript
Photo Connor Tomas connortomas.com
Charlotte Wood: 'In the midst of this gloom we need art more than ever', Stella Prize acceptance - 2016
19 April 2016, Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia
The Stella Prize is a major literary award celebrating Australian women’s writing, and championing diversity and cultural change. Charlotte Wood won the award for her novel, 'The Natural Way of Things'. Announced here.
I am so honoured, and grateful beyond words, to receive the Stella Prize tonight.
I would like first to thank my fellow writers on the shortlist tonight – Mireille, Elizabeth, Fiona, Peggy and my dear friend Tegan – for the quality and integrity of their work. The World Without Us, A Few Days in the Country and Other Stories, Small Acts of Disappearance, Hope Farm and Six Bedrooms all speak to the highest literary ambition, and all of them ring with truth and beauty. I am proud to stand alongside these writers tonight.
Prize nights are a somewhat conflicted space for me for, after twenty years of writing, I know that the measure of a book’s quality, and the measure of one’s worth as an artist, can never be decided by awards. Nor can it be defined by sales, nor even the response of our beloved readers. If there is a measure – and I’m not sure there is – it can only be time. But all this measuring and grading, in any case, is not an artist’s job. Our energies must be dedicated, purely and simply, to the work itself – returning again and again to the writing room and the blank page, defying the cold logic that says you are only worth what you earn, or what others think of you. Showing up to that blank space with curiosity and courage is an exercise in the greatest freedom we can know – intellectual freedom, to explore your obsession with something nobody but you cares about, to pursue your own strange thoughts and dreams, to climb right inside your own dark wormhole of fascination and stay there.
On one very bad day while writing this novel, I thought again about giving it up, and I sent this email to a couple of my writing friends.
Not going so well this week, after all. Somehow swamped again with the futility of this work, trying to find the point of writing a dark, bleak book about girls imprisoned and trapped and reviled. Yesterday I couldn't see how I was not just adding yet more ugliness to the world. But I have just bucked myself up a little bit, by writing a list of reasons to keep going. Here’s what I came up with. Reasons to write:
1. To make something beautiful. Beauty does not have to mean prettiness, but can emerge from the scope of one’s imagination, the precision of one’s words, the steadiness and honesty of one’s gaze.
2. To make something truthful. ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty.’
3. To make use of what you have and who you are. Even a limited talent brings an obligation to explore it, develop it, exercise it, be grateful for it.
4. To make, at all. To create is to defy emptiness. It is generous, it affirms. To make is to add to the world, not subtract from it. It enlarges, does not diminish.
5. Because as Iris Murdoch said, paying attention is a moral act. To write truthfully is to honour the luck and the intricate detail of being alive.
I returned to that email for comfort often through the writing of my novel, but it came back to me again this week because I think perhaps those are also reasons to read, and I want to say something about literature as a force for good in this embattled world of ours.
It often feels to me that we have entered a new dark age – an age in which science is rejected in favour of greed and superstition, in which our planet is in desperate need of rescue; an age in which bigotry and religion are inseparable, and presidential candidates promise to punish women for controlling their own bodies.
I feel that in the midst of this gloom we need art more than ever. Art is a candle flame in the darkness: it urges us to imagine and inhabit lives other than our own, to be more thoughtful, to feel more deeply, to challenge what we think we already know. Art declares that we contain multitudes, that more than one thing can be true at once. And it gives us a breathing space – a space in which we can listen more than talk, where we can attentively question our own beliefs, a place to find stillness in a chaotic world. I hope that my novel has provided some of those things: provocation, yes, but also beauty and stillness.
I thank the Stella judges so very much for choosing my book. To have this recognition means more than I can express.
Thank you to my stalwart friend and publisher Jane Palfreyman, who has stuck by me when a fainter-hearted woman would have fled. To my superb agent, Jenny Darling, who is indefatigable in guiding her clients’ books into readers’ hands.
I thank my beloved writing friends Vicki Hastrich, Tegan Daylight, Eileen Naseby, Lucinda Holdforth and Ailsa Piper, who heard way too much wailing about my struggles with this book, but who never stopped encouraging me. I thank my darling husband Sean McElvogue – the greatest of steadfast supporters, a talented and sensitive man, the best I have ever known.
Last, of course, I thank the long list of Stella organisers and benefactors, who have given their expertise and time, their goodwill and their money to this cause of literature, created by women. They overcame enormous obstacles to set up this prize, and its success in seizing the public imagination so powerfully in such a short time has been utterly extraordinary.
As many of you know, it has never been more difficult to survive as a writer. A 2015 study showed the average income from literary fiction royalties was $4100 per year. Just five per cent of all authors earn more than the average wage from our creative practice. I promise I cite these figures not to complain, because as I said earlier, we writers are privileged to have a life of absolute intellectual freedom, and that is always worth more than money. But I say it so that each private citizen who has made this award possible truly understand the magnitude of their gift, and how much it means to me and all winners of this prize. It means everything.
As you also know, some recent winners of various literary prizes have also shown extraordinary individual generosity, in publicly donating portions of their prize money to crucially important social causes – a move I admire and absolutely respect. But tonight I will not be following in those footsteps. I’m going to keep this prize money. Not just because it will afford me the only thing every writer really wants, time and mental space to work, but because I want to stake a claim for literature as an essential social benefit, in and of itself. I would like all writers – especially those here tonight and most especially women, who so often put their need to make art behind the needs of others – to remember what I rediscovered on that bleak day I mentioned earlier: that to create art is itself an act of enlargement, of enrichment and affirmation. To write well is to light that candle in the darkness, offering solace, illumination – and maybe even the possibility of transformation – not just for the writer but for the reader, and for our society itself.
Thank you so much for this honour.
You can purchase 'The Natural Way of Things' here.
Vanessa Redgrave: 'You have refused to be intimidated by the threats of a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums' Oscar acceptance - 1978
3 April 1978, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles, California, USA
Julia was a Holocaust story. The Jewish Defense League objected to Redgrave's nomination because she had narrated and helped fund a documentary entitled "The Palestinian," which supported a Palestinian state. They picketed the Oscars in protest.
My dear colleagues, I thank you very, very much for this tribute to my work. I think that Jane Fonda and I have done the best work of our lives and I think this was in part due to our director, Fred Zinnemann. And I also think it's in part because we believed and we believe in what we were expressing. Two, out of millions, who gave their lives and were prepared to sacrifice everything in the fight against fascist and racist Nazi Germany. And I salute you and I pay tribute to you and I think you should be very proud that in the last few weeks you've stood firm and you have refused to be intimidated by the threats of a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums whose behavior is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world and to their great and heroic record of struggle against fascism and oppression. And I salute that record, and I salute all of you for having stood firm and dealt a final blow against that period when Nixon and McCarthy launched a worldwide witch hunt against those who tried to express in their lives and their work the truth that they believed in. I salute you, and I thank you, and I pledge to you that I will continue to fight against anti-Semitism and fascism. Thank you.
Bob Dylan: 'You can boo but booing's got nothing to do with it', Bill of Rights dinner - 1963
13 December 1963, Hotel Americana, New York City, USA
The Emergency Civil Liberties Union’s (E.C.L.U.) annual Bill of Rights dinner honoured Dylan with its prestigous Tom Paine award. This was the acceptance speech. Clip above is from No Direction Home.
I haven't got any guitar, I can talk though. I want to thank you for the Tom Paine award in behalf everybody that went down to Cuba. First of all because they're all young and it's took me a long time to get young and now I consider myself young. And I'm proud of it. I'm proud that I'm young. And I only wish that all you people who are sitting out here today or tonight weren't here and I could see all kinds of faces with hair on their head - and everything like that, everything leading to youngness, celebrating the anniversary when we overthrew the House Un-American Activities just yesterday, - Because you people should be at the beach. You should be out there and you should be swimming and you should be just relaxing in the time you have to relax. (Laughter) It is not an old peoples' world. It is not an old peoples' world. It has nothing to do with old people. Old people when their hair grows out, they should go out. (Laughter) And I look down to see the people that are governing me and making my rules - and they haven't got any hair on their head - I get very uptight about it. (Laughter)
And they talk about Negroes, and they talk about black and white. And they talk about colors of red and blue and yellow. Man, I just don't see any colors at all when I look out. I don't see any colors at all and if people have taught through the years to look at colors - I've read history books, I've never seen one history book that tells how anybody feels. I've found facts about our history, I've found out what people know about what goes on but I never found anything about anybody feels about anything happens. It's all just plain facts. And it don't help me one little bit to look back.
I wish sometimes I could have come in here in the 1930's like my first idol - used to have an idol, Woody Guthrie, who came in the 1930's (Applause). But it has sure changed in the time Woody's been here and the time I've been here. It's not that easy any more. People seem to have more fears.
I get different presents from people that I play for and they bring presents to me backstage - very weird, weird presents - presents that I couldn't buy. They buy - they bring me presents that - I've got George Lincoln Rockwell's tie clip that somebody robbed for me. (Laughter) I have General Walker's car trunk keys - keys to his trunk that somebody robbed for me. Now these are my presents. I have fallout shelter signs that people robbed for me from Philadelphia and these are the little signs. There's no black and white, left and right to me anymore; there's only up and down and down is very close to the ground. And I'm trying to go up without thinking about anything trivial such as politics. They has got nothing to do with it. I'm thinking about the general people and when they get hurt.
I want to accept this award, the Tom Paine Award, from the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee. I want to accept it in my name but I'm not really accepting it in my name and I'm not accepting it in any kind of group's name, any Negro group or any other kind of group. There are Negroes - I was on the march on Washington up on the platform and I looked around at all the Negroes there and I didn't see any Negroes that looked like none of my friends. My friends don't wear suits. My friends don't have to wear suits. My friends don't have to wear any kind of thing to prove that they're respectable Negroes. My friends are my friends, and they're kind, gentle people if they're my friends. And I'm not going to try to push nothing over. So, I accept this reward - not reward, (Laughter) award in behalf of Phillip Luce who led the group to Cuba which all people should go down to Cuba. I don't see why anybody can't go to Cuba. I don't see what's going to hurt by going any place. I don't know what's going to hurt anybody's eyes to see anything. On the other hand, Phillip is a friend of mine who went to Cuba. I'll stand up and to get uncompromisable about it, which I have to be to be honest, I just got to be, as I got to admit that the man who shot President Kennedy, Lee Oswald, I don't know exactly where --what he thought he was doing, but I got to admit honestly that I too - I saw some of myself in him. I don't think it would have gone - I don't think it could go that far. But I got to stand up and say I saw things that he felt, in me - not to go that far and shoot. (Boos and hisses) You can boo but booing's got nothing to do with it. It's a - I just a - I've got to tell you, man, it's Bill of Rights is free speech and I just want to admit that I accept this Tom Paine Award in behalf of James Forman of the Students Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and on behalf of the people who went to Cuba. (Boos and Applause)
In the furore that followed, this correspondence appeared in the New York Times, first a letter from the ECLY to attendees of the dinner. Then a poem /letter from Dylan explaining his speech.
LETTER FROM CORLISS LAMONT
TO ATTENDEES OF THE DINNER
December 19, 1963
Dear Friend:
Many of our friends disapproved our choice of Bob Dylan for the Tom Paine award. Without defending his acceptance speech, I would like to tell you why we feel he deserved the award. Bob Dylan has sent us a message which more clearly conveys his feelings. It is enclosed and I urge you to read it carefully.
E.C.L.C. defends the right of all Americans to advocate their beliefs. This is not confined to ideology or political groups. It should certainly be extended to our own youth, who according to many experts are becoming increasingly alienated and lost in our present society.
Whether we approve or not, Bob Dylan has become the idol of the progressive youngsters of today, regardless of their political factions. He is speaking to them in terms of protest that they understand and applaud. (see the enclosed review from The New York Times).
E.C.L.C. feels that it is urgent to recognize the protest of youth today and to help make it understood by the older generation. Walt Whitman and Woody Guthrie, the culture antecedents of Bob Dylan, were not appreciated by their society until they were very old. We think that it would be better to make the effort now to comprehend what Bob Dylan is saying to and for the youth. It is true that he is not as respectable as Lord Russell, the winner of last year's award, but neither was Tom Paine, and our history is too full of disregard for important messages which were unrespectable at the time.
The annual celebration of Bill of Rights Day is not just a fund-raising affair - although we hope that our friends will help us carry on our work - it is also an opportunity for us to present to our supporters the problems of our democracy which in their daily lives they are apt to over-look.
This year over 1400 people were at the largest civil liberties dinner on record. We appreciate the understanding and support we received from many of those present and we hope that others will gain from the reading of the enclosed message by Bob Dylan an understanding which his speech did not convey.
Yours sincerely,
Corliss Lamont
MESSAGE FROM BOB DYLAN
TO THE E.C.L.C.
A MESSAGE
from Bob Dylan
(Sent to the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee
after he received the Tom Paine Award at the
Bill of Rights dinner on December 13, 1963.)
to anybody it may concern...
clark?
mairi?
phillip?
edith?
mr lamont?
countless faces I do not know
an all fighters for good things that I can not see
when I speak of bald heads, I mean bald minds
when I speak of the seashore, I mean the restin shore
I dont know why I mentioned either of them
my life runs in a series of moods
in private an in personal ways, sometimes,
I, myself, can change the mood I'm in t the
mood I'd like t be in. when I walked thru the
doors of the americana hotel, I needed to change
my mood... for reasons inside myself.
I am a restless soul
hungry
perhaps wretched
it is hard to hear someone you dont know, say
"this is what he meant t say" about something
you just said
for no one can say what I meant t say
absolutely no one
at times I even cant
that was one of those times
my life is lived out daily in the places I feel
most confortable in. these places are places where
I am unknown an unstared at. I perform rarely, an
when I do, there is a constant commotion burnin
at my body an at my mind because of the attention
aimed at me. instincts fight my emotions an fears
fight my instincts...
I do not claim t be smart by the standards set up
I dont even claim to be normal by the standards
set up
an I do not claim to know any kind of truth
but like an artist who puts his painting (after
he's painted it) in front of thousands of unknown
eyes, I also put my song there that way
(after I've made it)
it is as easy an as simple as that
I can not speak. I can not talk
I can only write an I can only sing
perhaps I should've sung a song
but that wouldn't a been right either
for I was given an award not to sing
but rather on what I have sung
no what I should've said was
"thank you very much ladies an gentlemen"
yes that is what I should've said
but unfortunatly... I didn't
an I didn't because I did not know
I thought something else was expected of me
other than just sayin "thank you"
an I did not know what it was
it is a fierce heavy feeling
thinkin something is expected of you
but you dont know what exactly it is...
it brings forth a wierd form of guilt
I should've remembered
"I am BOB DYLAN an I dont have t speak
I dont have t say nothin if I dont wanna"
but
I didn't remember
I constantly asked myself while eatin supper
"what should I say? what should I tell 'm?
everybody else is gonna tell 'm something"
but I could not answer myself
I even asked someone who was sittin nex t me
an he couldn't tell me neither. my mind blew
up an needless t say I had t get it back in its
rightful shape (whatever that might be) an so
I escaped from the big room... only t hear my
name being shouted an the words "git in here
git in here" overlappin with the findin of my
hand being pulled across hundreds of tables
with the lights turned on strong... guidin me
back t where I tried t escape from
"what should I say? what should I say?"
over an over again
oh God, I'd a given anything not t be there
"shut the lights off at least"
people were coughin an my head was poundin
an the sounds of mumble jumble sank deep in
my skull from all sides of the room
until I tore everything loose from my mind
an said "just be honest, dylan, just be honest"
an so I found myself in front of the plank
like I found myself once in the path of a car
an I jumped...
jumped with all my bloody might
just tryin t get out a the way
but first screamin one last song
when I spoke of Lee Oswald, I was speakin of the times
I was not speakin of his deed if it was his deed.
the deed speaks for itself
but I am sick
so sick
at hearin "we all share the blame" for every
church bombing, gun battle, mine disaster,
poverty explosion, an president killing that
comes about.
it is so easy t say "we" an bow our heads together
I must say "I" alone an bow my head alone
for it is I alone who is livin my life
I have beloved companions but they do not
eat nor sleep for me
an even they must say "I"
yes if there's violence in the times then
there must be violence in me
I am not a perfect mute.
I hear the thunder an I cant avoid hearin it
once this is straight between us, it's then an
only then that we can say "we" an really mean
it... an go on from there t do something about
it
When I spoke of Negroes
I was speakin of my Negro friends
from harlem
an Jackson
selma an birmingham
atlanta pittsburg, an all points east
west, north, south an wherever else they
might happen t be.
in rat filled rooms
an dirt land farms
schools, dimestores, factories
pool halls an street corners
the ones that dont own ties
but know proudly they dont have to
not one little bit
they dont have t be like they naturally aint
t get what they naturally own no more 'n anybody
else does
it only gets things complicated
an leads people into thinkin the wrong things
black skin is black skin
It cant be covered by clothes an made t seem
acceptable, well liked an respectable...
t teach that or t think that just tends the
flames of another monster myth...
it is naked black skin an nothin else
if a Negro has t wear a tie t be a Negro
then I must cut off all ties with who he has
t do it for.
I do not know why I wanted t say this that
nite.
perhaps it was just one of the many things
in my mind
born from the confusion of my times
when I spoke about the people that went t Cuba
I was speakin of the free right t travel
I am not afraid t see things
I challenge seein things
I am insulted t the depths of my soul
when someone I dont know commands that I
cant see this an gives me mysterious reasons
why I'll get hurt if I do see it... tellin me
at the same time about goodness an badness in
people that again I dont know...
I've been told about people all my life
about niggers, kikes, wops, bohunks, spicks, chinks,
an I been told how they eat, dress, walk, talk,
steal, rob, an kill but nobody tells me how any
of 'm feels... nobody tells me how any of 'm cries
or laughs or kisses. I'm fed up with most newspapers,
radios, tv an movies an the like t tell me. I want
now t see an know for myself...
an I accepted that award for all others like me
who want t see for themselves... an who dont want
that God-given right taken away
stolen away
or snuck out from beneath them
yes a travel ban in the south would protect
Americans more, I'm sure, than the one t Cuba
but in all honesty I would want t crash that
one too
do you understand?
do you really understand?
I mean I want t see. I want t see all I can
everyplace there is t see it
my life carries eyes
an they're there for one reason
the reason t see thru them
my country is the Minnesota-North Dakota territory
that's where I was born an learned how t walk an
it's where I was raised an went t school... my
youth was spent wildly among the snowy hills an
sky blue lakes, willow fields an abandoned open
pit mines. contrary t rumors, I am very proud of
where I'm from an also of the many blood streams that
run in my roots. but I would not be doing what
I'm doing today if I hadn't come t New York. I was
given my direction from new york. I was fed in
new york. I was beaten down by new york an I was
picked up by new york. I was made t keep going on
by new york. I'm speakin now of the people I've met
who were strugglin for their lives an other peoples'
lives in the thirties an forties an the fifties
an I look t their times
I reach out t their times
an, in a sense, am jealous of their times
t think I have no use for "old" people is a betrayin thought
those that know me know otherwise
those that dont, probably're baffled
like a friend of mine, jack elliott, who says he
was reborn in Oklahoma, I say I was reborn in
New York...
there is no age limit stuck on it
an no one is more conscious of it than I
yes it is a fierce feeling, knowin something you
dont know about's expected of you. but it's worse
if you blindly try t follow with explodin words
(for that's all they can do is explode)
an the explodin words're misunderstood
I've heard I was misunderstood
I do not apologize for myself nor my fears
I do not apologize for any statement which led
some t believe "oh my God! I think he's the one
that really shot the president"
I am a writer an a singer of the words I write
I am no speaker nor any politician
an my songs speak for me because I write them
in the confinement of my own mind an have t cope
with no one except my own self. I dont have t face
anyone with them until long after they're done
no I do not apologize for being me nor any part of me
but I can return what is rightfully yours at any
given time. I have stared at it for a long while
now. it is a beautiful award. there is a kindness
t Mr Paine's face an there is almost a sadness in
his smile. his trials show thru his eyes. I know
really not much about him but somehow I would like
t sing for him. there is a gentleness t his way.
yes thru all my flounderin wildness, I am, when it
comes down to it, very proud that you have given this
t me. I would hang it high, an let my friends see in
it what I see, but I also would give it back if
you wish. There is no sense in keepin it if you've
made a mistake in givin it. for it means more'n any
store bought thing an it'd only be cheatin t keep it
also I did not know that the dinner was a donation
dinner. I did not know you were gonna ask anyone
for money. an I understand you lost money on the
masterful way I expressed myself... then I am in debt t you
not a money debt but rather a moral debt
if you'd a sold me something, then it'd be a money debt
but you sold nothin, so it is a moral debt
an moral debts're worse 'n money debts
for they have t be paid back in whatever is missin
an in this case, it's money
please send me my bill
an I shall pay it
no matter what the sum
I have a hatred of debts an want t be even in
the best way I can
you needn't think about this, for money means
very little t me
so then
I'll return once again t the road
I cant tell you why other people write, but I
write in order to keep from going insane.
my head, I expect'd turn inside out if my hands
were t leave me.
but I hardly ever talk about why I write. an I
scarcely ever think about it. the thought of it is
too alarmin
an I never ever talk about why I speak
but that's because I never do it. this is the
first time I am talkin about it... an I pray
the last
the thought of doing it again is too scary
ha! it's a scary world
but only once in a while huh?
I love you all up there an the ones I dont love,
it's only because I do not know them an have not
seen them... God it's so hard hatin. it's so
tiresome... an after hatin something to death,
it's never worth the bother an trouble
out! out! brief candle
life's but an open window
an I must jump back thru it now
see yuh
respectfully an unrespectfully
(sgd) bob dylan