Who cares about the Nobel prize? Dylan made it cool to be Jewish, hot to be American and transformed literature. His masterpiece is himself
B efore Bob Dylan came along, there were famous poets – people bought collections of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton; they looked to their confessional stanzas of slit-wrist recollections to feel the pain and balm. Yes, Robert Lowell was a celebrity. Bob Dylan put poetry out of business. He invented the singer-songwriter. He created the more efficient delivery system.
When I started writing, I knew I had to compete with what Bob Dylan did with language, because he preempted emotion on the page. I had to tell the truth. I had to be utter. I had to go to extremes. I am up against the sonic museum of Bob Dylan.
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