Alberto Cabello from Vitoria Gasteiz, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Why we think Bob Dylan is a Type 4
Defying categorization. He never lets himself get put in a box, pigeonholed, or defined by other people.
Emphasizing authenticity over ambition. Dylan comes across as genuine, authentic, and deep in his press conferences. He has talked about needing to suppress one’s ambitions in order to be authentic.
Mysterious persona. He is private, mysterious, elusive, and has multiple identities.
Unwilling interviewee. He appears to be a reluctant participant in his own press conferences.
Deliberate communicator. He has a withdrawn energy and is thoughtful about his words.
Laid-back wit. Dylan is witty and sarcastic in a low-key kind of way.
Reserved ambition. He has shared that he doesn’t have a desire to be a star, but that he knew his destiny was to be big.
Emphasis on originality. He talks about his "wellspring of creativity” and has expressed a strong desire to write symphonies with different ideas and different melodies.
Artistic “integrity.” He would not play his old songs because it would be “dishonest.”
Aversion towards anything that is not original. Dylan has referred to his work as unique in contrast to folk songs which he calls 'constitutional replay mass production.' He has expressed displeasure that music is made by machine and that it all sounds the same.
Deploring a lack of authenticity. He has expressed that when people are famous nobody is real anymore.
Intellectual quirkiness. He talks about music as mathematics and has a quirkiness to him (which gives us confidence that he has a 5 Wing).
Strong introversion. He is not eager to connect with his audience and certainly not with the press (which gives us confidence that he has a 5 Wing).
Bob Dylan quotes that show he is a Type 4
"I had plans to make a film, but not because anyone said I should do them."
"Do I consider myself a politician? I guess so, but I have my own party though...there are no presidents or secretaries, so it makes it hard to get in."
"I am nobody's puppet and nobody pulls my strings."
"Nobody knows me. And I don't know them."
“What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.”
“Yesterday's just a memory, tomorrow is never what it's supposed to be.”
“I kinda live where I find myself.”
“All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie.”
“All this talk about equality. The only thing people really have in common is that they are all going to die.”
“I'm mortified to be on the stage, but then again, it's the only place where I'm happy.
“You call yourself what you want to call yourself.”
“The land created me. I'm wild and lonesome. Even as I travel the cities, I'm more at home in the vacant lots.”
“I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I'll die like a poet.”
“What good are fans? You can't eat applause for breakfast. You can't sleep with it.”
“Basically you have to suppress your own ambitions in order to be who you need to be.”
Videos we watched to type him as a 4