Bob Dylan speech invokes Shakespeare

Los Angeles: Singer Bob Dylan thanked the Nobel committee in a personally penned speech for honouring his songs as “literature”.

“I’m sorry I can’t be with you in person, but please know that I am most definitely with you in spirit and honoured to be receiving such a prestigious prize,” Dylan said in his acceptance speech read out by the US Ambassador to Sweden, Azita Raji.

“I was out on the road when I received this surprising news, and it took me more than a few minutes to properly process it. I began to think about William Shakespeare.

“I would reckon he thought of himself as a dramatist. The thought that he was writing literature couldn’t have entered his head. His words were written for the stage. Meant to be spoken not read.”

In his speech Dylan cited his literary influences, including “Kipling, Shaw, Thomas Mann, Pearl Buck, Albert Camus.”