From the moment [Bob] Dylan arrived as a songwriter, he…

I was comparatively late in understanding Bob Dylan's overwhelming importance as a songwriter. Everybody who does my job exists in the shadow of Bob…

— Steve Earle

The confessional singer-songwriter movement of the 1970s was in full swing, and Bob Dylan's emotional album [ Blood on the Tracks] resonated with the…

— Bob Dylan

I think that any songwriter - and I think that Bob Dylan knows this more than all of us - you don't write the…

— Leonard Cohen

The [Nobel] prize is for literature.[Bob] Dylan is a songwriter. Here is where the argument starts to get interesting, because here is where it…

— David Bennun

I think Bob Dylan's a good songwriter. I think he's the best songwriter in the world probably.

— Chrissie Hynde

If Woody Guthrie set the bar for American songwriters, Bob Dylan jumped right over it. No one I know will ever come close to…

— John Mellencamp

Townes Van Zandt ranks alongside Kris Kristofferson and Bob Dylan. He inspired so many songwriters to shoot for something that's timeless.

— Rodney Crowell

In New York, I'm around a lot of the reasons I started playing music in the first place. I live right behind Matt Umanov…

— Steve Earle

Bob Dylan is one of the very few people in the history of popular music who you can unquestionably apply that word [genius] to.

— Steve Earle

Bob Dylan emerged from nowhere, like an alien. And that was just the start.

— Steve Earle

Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world, and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and…

— Steve Earle

Gregory Corso used to get really pissed when people called Bob Dylan a 'poet.' After writing poetry for a few years, I can understand…

— Steve Earle

The drama teacher that I had in high school, back in Texas, was the only teacher who didn't kick me out of his class.…

— Steve Earle

All we do as songwriters is rewrite the songs that have impressed us till we find our own voice. It's part of learning the…

— Steve Earle

Songwriters are expanding time rather than compressing time. My short stories tend to be old fashioned, with a beginning, middle and end.

— Steve Earle