Interview date: 25 May 1989 continued

Q: Bob Dylan? BD: I continue on my way upwards. Q: Until then BD: That depends on some things, like the audience, my enthusiasm and my strength. (smiling he answers) Why, I am just like any other, I only try to keep going. Q: As regards his present attitude towards women, Bob's answer is not very precise: BD: I am on a sort of crossroads in my life and I can do without that. I can feel the attraction but I can also keep myself apart. I admire beauty more than anything else but now I don't feel I must possess it. The ideal man or woman doesn't exist. When you look for something you are not really looking for a man or a woman. You are looking for someone who awakes something which is buried inside you and once that person does it you become familiar and you always want that and then you stay with that person. But two people who are in love are not in love just with each to her. There is a third element intermingled and that third element is an ideal. Both must love the same ideal and that is what they have to share. If that doesn't exist, then it's not love, it's necessity. Q: Is it true that during your bad times, when everything seems to be a waste of time, you usually say, "I go out with the animals or spend more time with my children. I like teenagers, they are less obscure and purer."? BD: The worst time in my life was when I tried to search (for) the past, for instance when I went back to new York for the second time. I didn't know what to do, everything had changed and I also tried to sing and write at the same time, and sometimes that drove me crazy. One thing is writing and singing is very different. One is opposed to the other, and I can't write with the energy with which I perform and I can't perform with the energy with which I write. Q: Many times you have said that you had to fight. Against what? BD: With the past. When I recall the past it is something almost masochistic. I had some beautiful moments I wish to keep. I've been in the darkness...now I wish to concentrate in the light only.