Songs are not better just because they’re emotionally honest. To write a song well, you have to put some work into it and grind it out. – Jakob Dylan
You have to have a work ethic, and you have to be educated in what you’re doing. You have to take it seriously. It doesn’t mean that everything you do has to be serious. But you’ve got to have the tools. – Jakob Dylan
When I listen back to my music and everyone else that’s out there, I’m aware that there’s something I can do that the next guy doesn’t do. – Jakob Dylan
I’m in an area where I want to make music that I’m thrilled with, but, you know, I do have to worry about putting food on the table. I’m in that position where I cannot always be gauging what things might become. I have to look ahead, because I’m cautious. – Jakob Dylan
There’s only so many things to sing about, so what’s going to make a song appeal to you more than someone else’s is just a unique way of saying the same thing. – Jakob Dylan
It’s a little gross to put yourself in every song. I mean, how interesting do people really think you are? – Jakob Dylan
To us, there was Bob Dylan, and there was dad. As for what he meant to other people, that was never glorified in our house. There were no accolades there, no gold records. – Jakob Dylan
If I’m judged against my peers, rather than anyone else we could both think of, then I reckon I deserve to make records. – Jakob Dylan
We’ve all had that experience where we hear a song that we’ve liked for many years, and we finally hear what the writer tells us what it’s about, and you’re often disappointed. – Jakob Dylan
I got to watch my heroes meet him and saw how they reacted, whether it was Joe Strummer or Tom Waits. It was peculiar. I’m so stoked to meet Tom Waits, and he’s so nervous to meet my dad. It’s a head spin. – Jakob Dylan
I do look at songwriting as a lot of work. I don’t over-intellectualize music as a special medium that only some people deserve to do. I think it’s something you do if you put the work in. – Jakob Dylan
I’m not somebody who carries around a notepad and writes songs all day long. I don’t imagine everything I think of is worth being in a song. So I tend to collect notes, and I set time aside to go to work and write songs. – Jakob Dylan
I don’t feel like I chose to do music as much as I made a decision to not stop doing music. – Jakob Dylan
If people want to talk about Bob Dylan, I can talk about that. But my dad belongs to me and four other people exclusively. I’m very protective of that. And telling people whether he was affectionate is telling people a lot. It has so little to do with me. I come up against a wall. – Jakob Dylan
Every song you write you think is the last one you’re going to manage. You put everything you’ve got into the song, and you’ve twisted it and pulled at it and dug in and found a way to complete it. To get another one is the trick. – Jakob Dylan
The back story of a songwriter isn’t important to me – I don’t listen to music needing to know who the guy is. – Jakob Dylan
I always saw songwriting as the top of the heap. No matter what else you were going to do creatively – and there were a lot of choices – writing songs was king. – Jakob Dylan
If all you were left believing was what you were seeing, it’d be nothing but desperate. To have hope, you’re going to have to imagine that there’s something behind the curtain. – Jakob Dylan
It’s been said that I formed The Wallflowers to hide my name but, really, I’ve always wanted to be in a band – right from the day my friends and I soundproofed a garage with bed-covers for our first rehearsal. – Jakob Dylan
My songs have always had hope and perseverance in them – I never write songs that have no escape hatch, no positivity. – Jakob Dylan
I’ve got a life that really matters to me, and that’s because of the way I was raised. My ethics are high because my parents did a great job. – Jakob Dylan
