John Lennon
QuotationsLots of people who complained about us receiving the MBE received theirs for heroism in the war -- for killing people. We received ours for entertaining other people. I’d say we deserve ours more.
One has to completely humiliate oneself to be what the Beatles were, and that’s what I resent. I didn’t know, I didn’t foresee. It happened bit by bit, gradually, until this complete craziness is surrounding you, and you’re doing exactly what you don’t want to do with people you can’t stand -- the people you hated when you were ten.
Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first -- rock and roll or Christianity.
The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort? . . . Why do we have these accessories to normal living to live? I mean, is there something wrong with society that’s making us so pressurized, that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it?
The 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.
If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or my music, then in that respect you can call me that. . . . I believe in what I do, and I’ll say it.
You have to be a bastard to make it, and that’s a fact. And the Beatles are the biggest bastards on earth.
God is a concept by which we measure our pain.
I’ve had the boyhood thing of being Elvis. Now I want to be with my best friend, and my best friend’s my wife. Who could ask for anything more?
My defenses were so great. The cocky rock and roll hero who knows all the answers was actually a terrified guy who didn’t know how to cry. Simple.
Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.
I’m not gonna change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I’ve always been a freak. So I’ve been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I’m one of those people.
My role in society, or any artist 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.
Life is what happens while you are making other plans.
We’ve got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can’t just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it’s going to get on by itself. You’ve got to keep watering it. You’ve got to really look after it and nurture it.
Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. . . . I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends . . . and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.
Rituals are important. Nowadays it’s hip not to be married. I’m not interested in being hip.
Songwriting is about getting the demon out of me. It’s like being possessed. You try to go to sleep, but the song won’t let you. So you have to get up and make it into something, and then you’re allowed to sleep. It’s always in the middle of the bloody night, or when you’re half-awake or tired, when your critical faculties are switched off. So letting go is what the whole game is. Every time you try to put your finger on it, it slips away. You turn on the lights and the cockroaches run away. You can never grasp them.
New York is what Paris was in the twenties . . . the center of the art world. And we want to be in the center. It’s the greatest place on earth . . . I’ve got a lot of friends here and I even brought my own cash.
You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.
The pressures of being a parent are equal to any pressure on earth. To be a conscious parent, and really look to that little being’s mental and physical health, is a responsibility which most of us, including me, avoid most of the time because it’s too hard.
Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.
He didn’t come out of my belly, but my God, I’ve made his bones, because I’ve attended to every meal, and how he sleeps, and the fact that he swims like a fish because I took him to the ocean. I’m so proud of all those things. But he is my biggest pride.
We were all on this ship in the sixties, our generation, a ship going to discover the New World. And the Beatles were in the crow’s nest of that ship.
The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn’t the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.
Work is life, you know, and without it, there’s nothing but fear and insecurity.
Memorable Quotations Store at Amazon
MemorableQuotations.com
Memorable Quotations:
Jewish Writers of the Past
Jewish Writers of the Past
Memorable Quotations:
Irish Writers of the Past
Irish Writers of the Past
Memorable Quotations:
Famous Teachers of the Past
Famous Teachers of the Past
Memorable Quotations:
Philosophers of Western Civilization
Philosophers of Western Civilization
Memorable Quotations:
American Women Writers of the Past
American Women Writers of the Past
Memorable Quotations:
French Writers of the Past
French Writers of the Past
Memorable Quotations:
English Writers of the Past
English Writers of the Past
Memorable Quotations:
Massachusetts Writers of the Past
Massachusetts Writers of the Past
Memorable Quotations:
Humorists, Wits, and Satirists of the Past
Humorists, Wits, and Satirists of the Past
A Saigon Party:
And Other Vietnam War Short Stories
And Other Vietnam War Short Stories
Memories Are Like Clouds
Memorable Quotations: Actors
Memorable Quotations: American Women Writers
Memorable Quotations: African-American Writers
Memorable Quotations: Teachers and Educators
Memorable Quotations: Short Story Writers
Memorable Quotations: War Correspondents
Memorable Quotations: British Women Writers
Memorable Quotations: Science Fiction Writers
Memorable Quotations: British Prime Ministers
Memorable Quotations: U. S. States
What famous people are from your state?
What famous people are from your state?
Memorable Quotations: U. S. Supreme Court Justices
Memorable Quotations: Humorists, Wits, Satirists (A - H)
Memorable Quotations: Humorists, Wits, Satirists (I - P)
Memorable Quotations: Humorists, Wits, Satirists (Q - Z)
Memorable Quotations: Latin American Writers
Memorable Quotations: Past Political Leaders of Massachusetts
|