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Jay Michaelson

Jay Michaelson Quotes

Writer

Jay Michaelson is an American writer born in 1971. His work spans across various fields including religion, gender, law, and literature. Michaelson is known for his profound insights into religious diversity and gender identity.

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Famous Jay Michaelson Quotes

“I was raised a nice Jewish boy in a Conservative household. Went to Camp Ramah. It's funny actually. I think I enacted my queerness there unconsciously. I was kind of one of the weirdos. I was on staff and definitely interested in alternatives to what that social structure was supposed to be.”

Thinking Kind Social Boys Nice Structure Raised Conservative Alternatives Supposed To Be Camps Household Staff Weirdo Social Structure

Author:Jay Michaelson

“I thought that coming out was going to be the end of my religious life but actually it was the beginning. Because it only afterwards that I could be honest about who I was, what I wanted, how I understood spirituality.”

Ends Wanted Spirituality Religious Honest Understood Being Honest Coming Out Religious Life

Author:Jay Michaelson

“People should support equality because of their religion not despite it. These are the values that openness, inclusion, diversity promote. And they're directly opposed to the kind of enforced closet of certain interpretations of religion.”

People Should Kind Certain Values Support Diversity Despite Interpretation Openness Inclusion Closets

Author:Jay Michaelson

“We in the Jewish community are comparatively lucky. All of traditions have anti-gay pieces but the Jewish tradition doesn't have as many anti-sexuality and anti-body teachings. It's a lot easier to fit affirmation of sexuality and gender.”

Body Community Pieces Teaching Fit Easier Gay Lucky Tradition Gender Sexuality Affirmation Jewish Community Anti Gay Jewish Tradition

Author:Jay Michaelson

“Funny thing about Bob Dylan, the newest Nobel laureate in literature: He's been a master of self-invention for more than 50 years, creating personae, wearing them like masks, and then discarding them as soon as they grew too familiar.”

Years Self Literature Masters Grew Creating Invention Familiar Mask Bob Dylan Funny Things Nobel

Author:Jay Michaelson

“I suspect many readers might associate [Bob Dylan] with one of the shortest phases of his career, the time from 1963 to '65 when he wrote his most famous "protest songs," like "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin.'"”

Might Song Careers Wind Reader Protest Suspects Bob Phases Associates Dylan Protest Songs

Author:Jay Michaelson

“In honor of his new Nobel, this hard-core Dylanophile wants to share with you a song or two from each of his many incarnations. Because you deserve to know.”

Knows Want Two Hard Song Share Honor Deserve Core Incarnation Nobel Hard Core

Author:Jay Michaelson

“After an initial solo album in which the young [Bob] Dylan was just finding his voice (i.e., reinventing himself from the middle-class Robert Zimmerman into a pseudo-hobo Woody Guthrie), Dylan put out two acoustic albums that forever changed popular music.”

Two Young Voice Class Forever Middle Changed Findings Albums Middle Class Bob Solo Initials Dylan Acoustics Woody Pseudo Popular Music Reinventing Hobos Zimmerman

Author:Jay Michaelson

“Folk music had long been political but [Bob] Dylan's poetry took it to a new level.”

Long Political Levels Folks Bob Dylan Folk Music

Author:Jay Michaelson

“"Masters of War" [of Bob Dylan] wasn't peacenik, anti-war stuff. With its minor key and uncompromising final lines ("And I hope that you die/And your death'll come soon/ I will follow your casket/ In the pale afternoon...") this was a previously unknown hybrid of caustic political commentary and punk rock, which itself wouldn't be invented for another decade or so.”

War Political Dies Stuff Lines Rocks Masters Keys Finals Decades Afternoon Anti War Punk Bob Pale Minors Dylan Commentary Punk Rock Hybrid Uncompromising Caskets Caustic

Author:Jay Michaelson

“In the meantime [1963-65], [Bob] Dylan was writing some of the best love songs in the genre, like "Girl From the North Country," "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," and "It Ain't Me, Babe."”

Thinking Writing Country Song Girl Genre Bob Dylan Alright Babe Best Love Think Twice North Country

Author:Jay Michaelson

“Probably the high-watermark of [Bob] Dylan's career came after he plugged in his guitar ("Judas!" one fan shouted during a concert) and exploded American poetry, combining Beat aesthetics, psychedelic imagery, collage techniques.”

Careers Fans Beats Guitar Technique Concerts Bob Dylan Imagery Aesthetics Psychedelic Combining Judas Collages American Poetry

Author:Jay Michaelson

“[Bob] Dylan would cut out phrases from magazines and then paste them together.”

Together Cutting Magazines Phrases Bob Dylan

Author:Jay Michaelson

“While [Bob] Dylan's folk fans thought he was selling out [in 1965-67], actually Dylan was lodging a stronger, deeper critique of American hypocrisy.”

Fans Stronger Folks Deeper Selling Hypocrisy Bob Dylan Critique Selling Out

Author:Jay Michaelson

“Religion is commodified; the educational system is a sham; and yet,[Bob] Dylan wonders, everyone has to stand naked sometime.”

Wonder Educational Naked Bob Dylan Educational System

Author:Jay Michaelson

“Unlike many Sixties rockers,[Bob] Dylan sang about getting old, about broken dreams. His return to roots music pointed the way for many of his contemporaries to forsake trying to sound 'current' and to instead make music that would stand the test of time.”

Way Trying Dream Sound Broken Return Roots Tests Currents Bob Sixty Getting Old Dylan Forsake Rockers Broken Dreams Test Of Time

Author:Jay Michaelson

“Weirdly, by the way,[Bob] Dylan also managed to write several beautiful love songs, like "To Make You Feel My Love" (covered by Adele, Garth Brooks, Billy Joel, and who knows who else) and "Most of the Time." Go figure.”

Knows Way Feels Writing Beautiful Song Figures Covered Bob Dylan Brooks Beautiful Love

Author:Jay Michaelson

“The most recent incarnation of [Bob] Dylan has been the traveling journeyman/ charlatan who sings roots music, snarls dark lyrics that make "All Along the Watchtower" sound like a Disney tune, hosts an old-school radio show, and turns up in some unusual places, like ads for Chrysler and Victoria's Secret.”

Has Beens Shows School Turns Sound Dark Secret Roots Radio Tunes Unusual Host Ads Bob Dylan Incarnation Old School Victoria Charlatans Victoria's Secret Chrysler

Author:Jay Michaelson

“There has been a ton of excellent music in this period (along with a few misses), evoking scenes like a bar-room brawl at a border-town dive, a washed-up singer in a smoky lounge, and the scenes of violence in Bob Dylan latter-day music videos.I think the ethos of this period is best summed up in the 2001 song "Summer Days".”

Thinking Has Beens Song Rooms Violence Missing Periods Scene Summer Towns Singers Bars Video Excellent Borders Latter Bob Dylan Ethos Latter Days Summer Days

Author:Jay Michaelson

“In late [Bob] Dylan, music is the key to immortality, even though the summer days are long gone.”

Long Gone Keys Late Summer Music Is Immortality Bob Dylan Summer Days

Author:Jay Michaelson

“[Bob] Dylan's many quotations from classic American roots music (that song is from an album aptly titled Love and Theft) join the aging poet to a tradition that preceded him and hopefully will outlive him as well.”

Wells Song Poet Tradition Roots Aging Albums Hopefully Classic Bob Quotations Dylan Theft

Author:Jay Michaelson

“More of the symbols are stock (does [Bob] Dylan really have hogs lying out in the mud somewhere? I doubt it), but that's the point.”

Doe Lying Doubt Symbols Bob Mud Dylan Hog

Author:Jay Michaelson

“The best songs of this [modern] period - the apocalyptic "High Water," for example - return [Bob] Dylan to where he was in his first phase, updating and transforming American traditional music.”

Firsts Song Water Modern Example Return Periods Traditional Bob Phases Dylan Transforming Apocalyptic Traditional Music

Author:Jay Michaelson

“Except in these latter-day songs, [Bob] Dylan is a grizzled old prophet who's already been to hell and back.”

Song Hell Prophet Latter Bob Dylan Latter Days Hell And Back

Author:Jay Michaelson

“[Bob] Dylan, like Johnny Cash and only a handful of others, simultaneously embodies the American dream and the harsh wake-up call that comes after it.”

Dream Wake Up Cash Bob American Dream Harsh Dylan Handful Wake Up Call

Author:Jay Michaelson

“[Bob Dylan] is a preacher but also a sinner; a poet but also a pitchman; authentic all-American but also invented persona.”

Poet Sinner Bob Preacher Dylan Persona

Author:Jay Michaelson

“[Bob] Dylan is a contemporary Don Quixote, at once besotted by the promise of America and yet also undermining it.”

America Promise Contemporary Bob Dylan Undermining

Author:Jay Michaelson

“[Bob] Dylan thus deserves the Nobel Prize, not just for "new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition," as the Nobel committee aptly described his work, but also for embodying the contradictions within it.”

Song Expression Deserve Tradition Contradiction Prize Poetic Bob Committees Dylan Nobel Nobel Prize Great American

Author:Jay Michaelson

“What a miracle, that all we have to do to be beautifully loving creatures is just relax and allow.”

Creatures Miracle Relax

Book:Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment

Source: Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment

“At the last stages of the journey, there’s no journey at all.”

Lasts Journey Stage

Book:Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment

Source: Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment

“The Buddha’s dharma didn’t teach peace and relaxation; it taught awakening—often rude awakening.”

Teach Taught Awakening Rude Relaxation Dharma

Author:Jay Michaelson

“Sometimes, sitting there on the cushion failing to watch your breath, it can feel like you’re the only weirdo weird enough to be wasting your time in this way. But you’re not! There are generations of weirdos, monasteries full of them, and we have the benefit of their accumulated wisdom.”

Way Feels Sometimes Enough Watches Failing Generations Like You Benefits Sitting Breaths Weirdo Cushions Monasteries Wasting Your Time

Book:Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment

Source: Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment

“All relaxation does is allow the truth to be felt. The mind is cleared, like a dirty window wiped clean, and the magnitude of what we might ordinarily take for granted inspires tears.”

Mind Doe Might Felt Tears Inspire Window Clean Granted Dirty Relaxation Magnitude

Book:Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment

Source: Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment

“There’s no path to liberation that doesn’t pass through the shadow.”

Path Shadow Liberation

Author:Jay Michaelson

About the Author

Born: 1971
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 34

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