When you say 'I love you', you are not just saying it to that person. You are saying 'I love you' to yourself, the planet & The Universe.
Yoko OnoWhen I speak out against the guns or against the big corporations, some of my friends say, 'Oh Yoko, be careful. These people have all the power.' But, you know, most people don't speak out because they are frightened.
Yoko OnoAll my concerts had no sounds in them; they were completely silent. People had to make up their own music in their minds!
Yoko OnoWe're growing up together, the human race. And we've discovered a lot of things that we didn't know. We're finding our way. Instead of thinking about doomsday all the time, think about how beautiful the world is. We're all together, and together we're getting wiser.
Yoko OnoPerformance art is going to be the future. Plays on Broadway are so restricted. But performance art is like haikus, just one line thing. And it's more casual but more interesting.
Yoko OnoWatch the sun until it comes into your body and stays as a tiny sun. It will keep your face shining even in the coldest of winter.
Yoko OnoThe Beatles were a group made up of four very complex men, and my small hand could not have broken these men up.
Yoko OnoThere's nothing bad about feminism. We have to help each other, because there's a lot of women in the world who are suffering because the fact is we're not equal. It's as plain as that. It's still a men's world. I don't know. We'll go on with it.
Yoko OnoI'm just trying to do my best every day, hoping that I have done my best every day, and its very easy in a way, but also it's not that easy. Every day counts.
Yoko OnoTrue artists are prophets. I don't want to be that prophetic in that sense because it's so lonely.
Yoko OnoThere's many women now who think, 'Surely we don't need feminism anymore, we're all liberated and society's accepting us as we are'. Which is just hogwash. It's not true at all.
Yoko OnoPeople just love to be entertained, and in order to entertain them, you have to do things in a way that they understand.
Yoko OnoWhen people get cynical about love, they should look at us [Yoko and John Lennon] and see it is possible
Yoko OnoSmile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you'll start to see a big difference in your life.
Yoko OnoWords are power. And a book is full of words. Be careful what power you get from it. But know that you do.
Yoko OnoI think that all women are witches, in the sense that a witch is a magical being. Don't be scared of witches, because we are good witches, and you should appreciate our magical power.
Yoko OnoBeatles was 20th-century folksong in the framework of capitalism; they couldn't do anything different if they wanted to communicate within that framework.
Yoko OnoNext time you meet a 'foreigner', remember it's only like a window with a different shape to it and the person who's sitting inside is you.
Yoko OnoI want to incite people to loosen their oppression by giving them something to work with, to build on. They shouldn't be frightened of creating themselves - that's why I make things very open, with things for people to do.
Yoko OnoI'm into indie music. I think indie is going to bring back the spirit in music. There was a time when it was all about accommodating the music business, the music was getting tasteless, but the spirit is back.
Yoko OnoThe war industry people are very together; they know exactly what they want; they don't even have to talk to each other. The peace industry people are just intellectuals who are very critical of each other... Unless the peace industry is powerful, we're always going to have war. It is as simple as that.
Yoko OnoDJs are in incredible competition, musically. And they are the most musically creative and sensitive people in all the music charts. I am amazed how they are.
Yoko OnoThe process is always the same. I get an inspiration for a new song, I put it down on paper immediately so I won't lose it. When I am ready to go to the studio with it, I play it a few times on the piano and edit, add, and type the lyrics and take it to the studio. Sometimes I don't have anything on paper.
Yoko OnoEverybody's an artist. Everybody's God. It's just that they're inhibited. I believe in people so much that if the whole of civilization is burned so we don't have any memory of it, even then people will start to build their own art. It is a necessity -- a function. We don't need history.
Yoko OnoWhen you burn the chair, you suddenly realize that the chair in your mind did not burn or disappear
Yoko OnoThe sky is always there for me, while my life has been going through many, many changes. When I look up the sky, it gives me a nice feeling, like looking at an old friend.
Yoko OnoWhen I was 4 years old my mother put me into an early music education school. That's where they taught you perfect pitch and harmony and how to write music and all that. At that time, one of the homeworks was to listen to all the sounds and the noise of a day and transfer that into musical notes.
Yoko Ono