We [the band] had this open door policy - if you walked in the door, you were asked to play

Ringo: 'I do get emotional when I think back about those times. My make-up is emotional. I'm an emotional human being. I'm very sensitive and it took me till I was forty-eight to realize that was the problem! We were honest with each other and we were honest about the music. The music was positive. It was positive in love. They did write - we all wrote - about other things, but the basic Beatles message was Love.

When you're in a band - before it got to grunge - you dressed the bit. So yeah, I've always had an attitude with the clothes.

At the end of the day, I can end up just totally wacky, because I've made mountains out of molehills. With meditation, I can keep them as molehills.

Of course I'm ambitious. What's wrong with that? Otherwise you sleep all day.

The drummer's always going to be there. They're the floor of the whole deal and everyone can stand up on you.

That's when we decided to stop in '66. Everyone thought we toured for years, you know, but we didn't. I joined in '62, and we'd finished touring in '66 to go into the studio where we could hear each other... and create any fantasy that came out of anybody's brain.