Musician Quotes of the Month (Or So)

"Right now America is in a state of upheaval. Poverty is demoralising. You can't expect people to have the virtue of purity when they are poor. But we've got this guy out there now who is redefining the nature of politics from the ground up...Barack Obama. He's redefining what a politician is, so we'll have to see how things play out. Am I hopeful? Yes, I'm hopeful that things might change. Some things are going to have to. You should always take the best from the past, leave the worst back there and go forward into the future."

Bob Dylan, from the TimesOnline, June 5, 2008

Q: What was it like when you last saw him?

A: We held hands. It's funny, even at the height of our friendship--as guys--you would never hold hands. It just wasn't a Liverpool thing. But it was lovely. I sat with him for a few hours when he was in treatment just outside New York. He was about 10 days away from his death, as I recall. He was very poorly. But it was lovely, really lovely, and the years just stripped back. We joked about things. . . . Just amusing, nutty stuff. It was good. It was like we were dreaming. He was my little baby brother, almost, because I'd known him that long.

Paul McCartney, on his bandmate George Harrison, in the August 2008 issue of Uncut