News conference in Chicago, where he apologized for the above statement, which was accepted by the Vatican. (11 August 1966)
John LennonLaurel and Hardy. That's John and Yoko, and we stand a better chance under that guise, because all the serious people, like Martin Luther King, and Kennedy, and Gandhi, got shot.
John LennonI still don't know how to express the really delicate personal stuff. People think that Plastic Ono is very personal, but there are some subtleties of emotions which I cannot seem to express in pop music, and it frustrates me. Maybe that's why I still search for other ways of expressing myself. Song writing is a limiting experience in some ways - writing down words that have to rhyme.
John LennonPaul (McCartney) and I made a deal when we were 15. There was never a legal deal between us, just a deal we made when we decided to write together that we put both our names on it, no matter what.
John LennonPaul and I know each other on a lot of different levels that very few people know about.
John LennonIf I had the capabilities of being something other than I am, I would. It's no fun being an artist. You know what it's like, writing, it's torture.
John LennonThe first thing we did was to proclaim our Liverpoolness to the world, and say 'It's all right to come from Liverpool and talk like this'. Before, anybody from Liverpool who made it, like Ted Ray, Tommy Handley, Arthur Askey, had to lose their accent to get on the BBC.
John LennonThe best things in life are free, but you can keep them for the birds and bees; I want money.
John Lennonif everyone could just be happy with themselves and the choices people around them make, the world would instantly be a better place!
John LennonI don't have any romanticism about any part of my past. I think of it only inasmuch as it gave me pleasure or helped me grow psychologically. That is the only thing that interests me about yesterday. I don't believe in yesterday, by the way. You know I don't believe in yesterday. I am only interested in what I am doing now.
John LennonWhen I started, rock and roll itself was the basic revolution to people of my age and situation. We needed something loud and clear to break through all the unfeeling and repression that had been coming down on us kids.
John LennonI don't know if I want to record together again. I go off and on it... In the old days, when we needed an album, Paul and I got together and produced enough songs for it. Nowadays, there's three of us writing prolifically and trying to fit it all into one album.
John LennonThe Beatles is over, but John, Paul, George, and Ringo...God knows what relationship they'll have in the future. I don't know. I still love those guys! Because they'll always be those people who were that part of my life.
John LennonDeclare it. Just the same way we declare war. That is how we will have peace... we just need to declare it.
John LennonWe need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create
John LennonEvolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.
John LennonAs a child I did a lot of imaginary bits, you know. It depends on the individual, I enjoyed then knocking the nail in, I enjoy knocking nails in walls to hang pictures up, but I also enjoy thinking 'I'm gonna do that' but I actually won't do it, I enjoy imagining doing things just as much.
John LennonYou can't cheat kids. If you cheat them when they're children they'll make you pay when they're sixteen or seventeen by revolting against you or hating you or all those so-called teenage problems. I think that's finally when they're old enough to stand up to you and say, 'What a hypocrite you've been all this time. You've never given me what I really wanted, which is you.
John LennonThe women are very important too, we can't have a revolution that doesn't involve and liberate women. It's so subtle the way you're taught male superiority.
John LennonIt's no good having, being with people you can dominate all the time. Or being with someone who can dominate you all the time. Because either one is boring.
John LennonIf you're an unknown artist you're lucky to get an hour in a studio - it's a hierarchy and if you don't have hits, you don't get recorded again.
John LennonOnce the new power has taken over they have to establish a new status quo just to keep the factories and trains running.
John LennonThe whole Beatle thing was just beyond comprehension. When 'Help' came out, I was actually crying out for help. Most people think it's just a fast rock 'n roll song. I didn't realize it at the time; I just wrote the song because I was commissioned to write it for the movie. But later, I knew I really was crying out for help.
John LennonHe laid it on George, me and our wives without telling us at a dinner party at his house. He was a friend of George's, and our dentist at the time. He just put it in our coffee or something. He didn't know what it was, it was just, 'It's all the thing,' with the middle-class London swingers. They had all heard about it and didn't know it was different from pot or pills. And they gave it to us, and he was saying, 'I advise you not to leave,' and we thought he was trying to keep us for an orgy in his house and we didn't want to know.
John LennonLife is what happens when we are busy doing other things. Peace is not something you wish for; it's something you make, something you do, something you are and something you give away.
John LennonI'll be a good boy, please make me well. I promise you anything, get me out of this hell. Cold turkey has got me on the run.
John LennonI believe Jesus was right, Buddha was right, and all of those people like that are right. They're all saying the same thing - and I believe it. I believe what Jesus actually said - the basic things he laid down about love and goodness - and not what people say he said.
John LennonI stopped listening to Dylan with both ears after Highway 64 (sic) and Blonde on Blonde, and even then it was because George (Harrison) would sit me down and make me listen.
John Lennon