Bob Dylan breaks silence over Nobel Prize award

Musician Bob Dylan said he was "speechless" after learning he had become the first musician awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The 75-year-old was controversially given the prestigious accolade a couple of weeks ago for "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".

The Swedish Academy said Dylan acknowledged it for the first time this week in a phone call.

They said he told Sara Danius, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, "I appreciate the honour so much," and also said: "The news about the Nobel Prize left me speechless"

Dylan was previously called "impolite and arrogant" for not acknowledging the prize, by one of the panel members at the Academy.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph he said he "absolutely" wants to attend the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony "if it's at all possible".

He told the paper it was "hard to believe" and "amazing, incredible" to be given the award.

"Whoever dreams about something like that?" he said.

Dylan became the first American to win the literature prize in over 20 years, and was praised by literary critics and academics as "one of the greats".