Dylan no show at Nobel Prize ceremony

Bob Dylan was absent from the Nobel Prize award ceremony in Stockholm but says he is honoured to get the gong for literature.

Bob Dylan says he's sorry for not being able to attend the Nobel prize award ceremony in Stockholm. (AAP)

Bob Dylan has expressed awe at receiving the Nobel Prize in literature and thanked the Swedish Academy for including him among the "giants" of writing.

In the speech - read on Saturday by US Ambassador to Sweden Azita Raji - the US songwriter said he was sorry for not being able to attend the award ceremony and banquet in Stockholm but was there "in spirit".

He alluded to the debate about whether the award should go to a songwriter.

Dylan said when Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, he probably was thinking about which actors to pick and where to find a skull.

"I'm sure the farthest thing from Shakespeare's mind was: 'Is this literature?"'

Dylan said he too focuses on "mundane matters" such as recording in the right key, not on whether his songs are literature.

He thanked the Academy for considering the question and "providing such a wonderful answer".