Dylan: 'Song-writing is easy'

Bob Dylan steals most of his songwriting ideas from his contemporaries and simply turns them round to provide a new slant.

The Lay Lady Lay hitmaker finds songwriting especially easy because for him inspiration is everywhere for the taking.

And he insists he is the king of reinvention with most of his ideas stemming from the poetry he reads.

He says: "It was pretty staggering, and it made you wonder why you couldn't do the same thing in a song. I'd see Villon talking about visiting a prostitute and I would turn it around. I won't visit a prostitute, I'll talk about rescuing a prostitute. Again, it's turning stuff on it's head, like 'vice is salvation' and virtue will lead to ruin."