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John Lennon

112 quotes

“For our last number, I'd like to ask your help. Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands. And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Royal Variety Performance in London (4 November 1963) attended by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and Princess Margaret. Of this incident Mark Hertsgaard reports in A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of the Be…
“No — we need money first.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: When asked if they wouldn't sing because they couldn't, in a press conference at John F. Kennedy Airport (7 February 1964)
“I was looking for a name like the Crickets that meant two things, and from crickets I got to beetles. And I changed [to] B E A because … B E E T L E S didn't mean two things, so I changed … the E to an A. And it meant two things then. … When you said it, people thought of crawly things; and when you read it, it was beat music.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Pop Chronicles: "Show 27 - The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming!: The U.S.A. is invaded by a wave of long-haired English rockers. Part 1" (24 August 1964).
“There's only one person in the United States we ever wanted to meet … not that he wanted us. And we met him last night. We can't tell you how we felt. We just idolised him so much. … You can't imagine what a thrill that was last night. Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn't been an Elvis, there wouldn't have been the Beatles.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement (28 August 1965) after meeting Elvis Presley, as quoted in The Leading Men of MGM (2005) by Jane Ellen Wayne, p. 386; also partly quoted in The Beatles: The Authorized Biography (1968) by Hunter Davies, p. 19
“One cave she wolf go too farther, and I wolf leaf her" he said to his fave rave horse. Of course the horse didn't answer, because as you know they cannot speak, least of all to a garlic eating, stinking, little yellow greasy fascist bastard catholic Spaniard. They soon made it up howevans and Jesus and wee Spastic were once morphia unitely in a love that knew no Suzie. The only thing that puzzled Jesus was why his sugarboot got so annoyed when he called her his little Spastic in public.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Spaniard In The Works" from A Spaniard In The Works (1965); this has sometimes been misquoted as if Lennon were speaking specifically about Jesus Christ, when in fact, it is part of the odd narration of an odd story w…
“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. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Originally cited in an interview with journalist Maureen Cleave published by London's Evening Standard newspaper (4 March 1966) which gained little attention in the UK at the time but, when reprinted in the US the follo…
“I suppose if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I would have gotten away with it. I'm sorry I opened my mouth. I'm not anti-God, anti-Christ, or anti-religion. I wasn't knocking it or putting it down. I was just saying it as a fact and it's true more for England than here. I'm not saying that we're better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing or whatever it is. I just said what I said and it was wrong. Or it was taken wrong. And now it's all this.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a news conference in Chicago in reference to his comments about the Beatles and Jesus from the previous March (above), which was accepted by the Vatican. (11 August 1966)
“I am he as you are he as you are meAnd we are all together”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: I Am the Walrus, (1968)
“We thought being offered the M.B.E. [Member of the Order of the British Empire] was as funny as everybody else thought it was. Why? What for? We didn't believe it. It was a part we didn't want. We all met and agreed it was daft.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted by Hunter Davies in The Beatles (1968)
“I think our society is run by insane people for insane objectives... I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends, you know... I'd be very pleased to know what they think they're doing. I think they're all insane. But I am liable to be put away as insane for expressing that, you know. That's what is insane about it.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lennon "Our society is run by insane people", Interview (6 June 1968) cited in Educate Inspire Change (10 June 2014)
“Lots 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.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics (1969)
“It was just a gradual development over the years. Last year was "All You Need Is Love." This year it's "Give Peace a Chance." Remember love. The only hope for any of us is peace. Violence begets violence. If you want to get peace, you can get it as soon as you like if we all pull together. You're all geniuses and you're all beautiful. You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are. Get out there and get peace. Think peace, live peace, and breathe peace and you'll get it as soon as you like. Okay?”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement to the press (July 1969) after the release of the Plastic Ono Band's single "Give Peace a Chance", as quoted in The Beatles: An Oral History by David Pritchard and Alan Lysaght (1998) New York: Hyperion. ISBN:…
“That's part of our policy, is not to be taken seriously, because I think our opposition, whoever they may be, in all their manifest forms, don't know how to handle humor. You know, and we are humorous, we are, what are they, Laurel 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 Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in BBC interview transcribed from The Beatles Tapes from the David Wigg Interviews (8 May 1969)
“I'd like to say "thank you" on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we passed the audition.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I was about twelve, I used to think I must be a genius, but nobody's noticed. Either I'm a genius or I'm mad, which is it? "No," I said, "I can't be mad because nobody's put me away; therefore I'm a genius." Genius is a form of madness and we're all that way. But I used to be coy about it, like me guitar playing. But if there's such a thing as genius — I am one. And if there isn't, I don't care.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: John Lennon interview with Rolling Stone magazine (December 1970)
“If people take any notice of what we say, we say we've been through the drug scene, man, and there's nothing like being straight.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Dick Cavett Show (24 September 1971)
“All that business was awful, it was a fuckin' humiliation. 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.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Rolling Stone (7 January 1971) , and requoted in The Sociology of Rock by Simon Frith, 1978
“It'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 Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview on Scene And Heard by David Wigg (25 October 1971)
“If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1972 Mike Douglas Show, quoted in: Lawrence, Ken (2005) John Lennon: In His Own Words, p. 107.
“We announce the birth of a conceptual country, NUTOPIA. Citizenship of the country can be obtained by declaration of your awareness of NUTOPIA. NUTOPIA has no land, no boundaries, no passports, only people. NUTOPIA has no laws other than cosmic. All people of NUTOPIA are ambassadors of the country. As two ambassadors of NUTOPIA, we ask for diplomatic immunity and recognition in the United Nations of our country and our people.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Declaration of Nutopia, co-signed with Yoko Ono, (1 April 1973); also published in the liner notes of Mind Games (1973)
“' It makes rock concerts look like tea parties.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Commenting on American Football, in interview with Howard Cosell on ABC Television (December 1974)
“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.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview for KFRC RKO Radio (8 December 1980)
“I've always considered my work one piece and I consider that my work won't be finished until I am dead and buried and I hope that's a long, long time.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with RKO Radio on the day of his murder (8 December 1980)
“I really thought that love would save us all.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Philadelphia Inquirer (10 December 1980)
“I've sold my soul to the devil.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the commercial success of the Beatles, as quoted in Lennon (1985) by Ray Coleman
“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.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: What Can I Tell You about Myself which You Have Not Already Found Out from Those Who Do Not Lie?" in The Beatles Anthology (2000)
“Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Sunday Herald Sun [Melbourne, Australia] (13 January 2003)]
“Well, I just want him to grow up happy. That's the main thing.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Talking about his son, Julian Lennon, in Ticket to Ride : Inside the Beatles' 1964 Tour That Changed the World (2003) by Larry Kane
“If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Guitar Player (1 August 2004), and in "Pax Patter" at ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
“You have to be! (Laughs) You might get shot!”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When we say "War is over if you want it," we mean that if everyone demanded peace instead of another TV set, we'd have peace.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: During the Bed-In for Peace in Montreal, Canada (1 June 1969)
“I am returning this MBE in protest against Britain's involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam and against "Cold Turkey" slipping down the charts.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Queen Elizabeth II sent in 1969 with his MBE, explaining why he was returning it.
“When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: During the Bed-In for Peace in Montreal, Canada (1 June 1969)
“It can never be again! Everyone always talks about a good thing coming to an end, as if life was over. But I'll be 40 when this interview comes out. Paul is 38. Elton John, Bob Dylan — we're all relatively young people. The game isn't over yet. Everyone talks in terms of the last record or the last Beatle concert — but, God willing, there are another 40 years of productivity to go. I'm not judging whether "I Am The Walrus" is better or worse than "Imagine." It is for others to judge. I am doing it. I do. I don't stand back and judge — I do.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I 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 Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where do people get off saying the Beatles should give $200,000,000 to South America? You know, America has poured billions into places like that. It doesn't mean a damn thing. After they've eaten that meal, then what? It lasts for only a day. After the $200,000,000 is gone, then what? It goes round and round in circles. You can pour money in forever. After Peru, then Harlem, then Britain. There is no one concert. We would have to dedicate the rest of our lives to one world concert tour, and I'm not ready for it. Not in this lifetime, anyway.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Part of me suspects that I'm a loser and the other part of me thinks I'm God Almighty.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What would you suggest I do? Give everything away and walk the streets? The Buddhist says, "Get rid of the possessions of the mind." Walking away from all the money would not accomplish that. It's like the Beatles. I couldn't walk away from the Beatles. That's one possession that's still tagging along, right?”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Well, that's rubbish, you know. Nobody controls me. I'm uncontrollable. The only one who controls me is me, and that's just barely possible.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We never made love in a bag. People probably imagined that we were making love. It was just, all of us are in a bag, you know. The point was the outline of the bag, you know, the movement of the bag, how much we see of a person, you know. But, inside, there might be a lot going on. Or maybe nothing's going on.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out. I don't appreciate worship of dead Sid Vicious or of dead James Dean or of dead John Wayne. It's the same thing. Making Sid Vicious a hero, Jim Morrison — it's garbage to me. I worship the people who survive. Gloria Swanson, Greta Garbo.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I go to restaurants and the groups always play "Yesterday." I even signed a guy's violin in Spain after he played us "Yesterday." He couldn't understand that I didn't write the song. But I guess he couldn't have gone from table to table playing "I Am The Walrus.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you want to change the system, change the system. It's no good shooting people.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It just came to me. Everybody was going on about karma, especially in the Sixties. But it occurred to me that karma is instant as well as it influences your past life or your future life. There really is a reaction to what you do now. That's what people ought to be concerned about. Also, I'm fascinated by commercials and promotion as an art form. I enjoy them. So the idea of instant karma was like the idea of instant coffee: presenting something in a new form. I just liked it.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On his song "Instant Karma!", prompted by the use of the phrase "Instant Karma" by Melinde Kendall, the wife of Yoko Ono's former husband Tony Cox, as quoted in All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lenn…
“These critics with the illusions they've created about artists — it's like idol worship. They only like people when they're on their way up … I cannot be on the way up again. … What they want is dead heroes, like Sid Vicious and James Dean. I'm not interesting in being a dead (expletive) hero. … So forget 'em, forget 'em.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm not claiming divinity. I've never claimed purity of soul. I've never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can … But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everything is as important as everything else.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I wouldn't say I was a born writer; I'm a born thinker.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All kids draw and write poetry and everything, and some of us last until we're about eighteen, but most drop off at about twelve when some guy comes up and says, "You're no good." That's all we get told all our lives. "You haven't got the ability. You're a cobbler." It happened to all of us, but if somebody had told me all my life, "Yeah, you're a great artist," I would have been a more secure person.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I 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 Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source