Bob Dylan delivers a 26-minute Nobel Prize lecture
The singer was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2016.
— -- Bob Dylan has delivered the lecture required of him to keep the Nobel Prize money he won last year.
On Monday, the speech was posted online, and Sara Danius, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, released a statement saying that "the Dylan adventure is coming to a close."
In the 26-minute talk, Dylan discussed books that left lasting impressions on him, including "Moby Dick," "All Quiet on the Western Front," and "The Odyssey."
"The themes from those books [and others that impacted him] worked their way into many of my songs, either knowingly or unintentionally," he said. "I wanted to write songs unlike anything anybody ever heard, and these themes were fundamental."
Dylan, 76, was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize for literature, though he did not attend the awards ceremony in December. This past March, Danius announced that the singer had made arrangements to submit a taped lecture rather than give a live one. In April, he accepted his Nobel diploma and medal in Sweden, where he played two concerts -- though in order to collect the $870,000 prize, he needed to deliver the lecture within six months of his win.
The Swedish Academy was pleased with his effort.
"The speech is extraordinary and, as one might expect, eloquent," Danius said today.