If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that... I believe in what I do, and I'll say it.
John LennonI must say the more interesting songs to me were the black ones because they were more simple.
John LennonTry to see it my way, only time will tell if I am right or I am wrong. While you see it your way, there's a chance that we might fall apart before too long. We can work it out. W e can work it out.
John LennonThe only reason I went for that goal is that I wanted to say: 'Now, mummy-daddy, will you love me?'
John LennonYou can't give a child too much love and if you love somebody, you can't be with them enough. There's no such thing.
John LennonIt depends who they are. If it's Mick (Jagger) or the Old Guard as I call them, yeah, they're the Old Guard. Elton (John), David (Bowie) are the newies. I don't feel like an old uncle, dear, 'cause I'm not that much older than half of 'em, hehe.
John LennonLove is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear.
John LennonThe Beatles had gone beyond comprehension. We were smoking marijuana for breakfast. We were well into marijuana and nobody could communicate with us, because we were just glazed eyes, giggling all the time.
John LennonWe had one thing in common - we were in love. But love is just a gift, and it doesn't answer everything and it's like a precious plant that you have to nurture and look after and all that.
John LennonWe're trying to sell peace, like a product, you know, and sell it like people sell soap or soft drinks. And it's the only way to get people aware that peace is possible, and it isn't just inevitable to have violence. Not just war - all forms of violence.
John LennonYou're born in pain and pain is what we're in most of the time. And I think that the bigger the pain, the more gods we need.
John LennonSomehow the revolutionaries must approach the workers because the workers won't approach them. But it's difficult to know where to start; we've all got a finger in the dam. The problem for me is that as I have become more real, I've grown away from most working-class people.
John LennonNow The Beatles are four separate people, we don't have the impact we had when we were together.
John LennonEverything they told me as a kid has already been disproved by the same type of “experts” who made them up in the first place.
John LennonI don't expect you to understand after you've caused so much pain, but then again-you're not to blame; you're just human-a victim of the insane.
John LennonIt looks like I'm going to be 40 and life begins at 40 - so they promise. And I believe it, too.
John LennonThe worst drugs are as bad as anybody's told you. It's just a dumb trip, which I can't condemn people if they get into it, because one gets into it for one's own personal, social, emotional reasons. It's something to be avoided if one can help it.
John LennonI was a working-class macho guy who was used to being served and Yoko didn't buy that. From the day I met her, she demanded equal time, equal space, equal rights.
John LennonI'm not going to sacrifice love, real love, for any *%@$n' war or any friend, or any business, because in the end you're alone at night.
John LennonThere's nothing new under the sun. All the roads lead to Rome. And people cannot provide it for you. I can't wake you up. You can wake you up. I can't cure you. You can cure you.
John LennonWhat Can I Tell You about Myself which You Have Not Already Found Out from Those Who Do Not Lie?
John LennonI don't mind people putting us down, because if everybody really liked us, it would be a bore. You've got to have people putting you down. It doesn't give any edge to it if everybody just falls flat on their face saying, "You're great." We enjoy some of the criticisms as well, they're quite funny; some of the clever criticisms, not the ones that don't know anything, but some of the clever ones are quite fun.
John LennonThe writing of the Beatles, or John and Paul's contribution to the Beatles in the late sixties - had a kind of depth to it, a more mature, more intellectual approach. We were different people, we were older. We knew each other in all kinds of different ways than when we wrote together as teenagers and in our older twenties.
John LennonI was a great one as a kid for standing and just looking out a window for hours and hours and hours. Now the TV does that for me, except for the view changes immensely.
John LennonMy role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.
John LennonIt's just natural, it's not a great disaster. People keep talking about it like it's The End of The Earth. It's only a rock group that split up, it's nothing important. You know, you have all the old records there if you want to reminisce.
John LennonI had to really kill off all the religious myths. In the therapy you really feel every painful moment of your life - it's excruciating, you are forced to realise that your pain, the kind that makes you wake up afraid with your heart pounding, is really yours and not the result of somebody up in the sky. It's the result of your parents and your environment.
John Lennon