JOHN LENNON QUOTES III
British singer/songwriter (1940-1980)
The idea of beetles came into my head. I decided to spell it BEATles to make it look like beat music, just a joke.
JOHN LENNON
Life Magazine, September 13, 1968
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
attributed, Beatles Illustrated Lyrics, vol. I
Think peace, live peace, and breathe peace and you'll get it as soon as you like. Okay?
JOHN LENNON
statement to the press, July 1969
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
Rolling Stone, January 7, 1971
Mother, you had me, but I never had you.
JOHN LENNON
"Mother"
Everything is as important as everything else.
JOHN LENNON
The Beatles Anthology
I learned lots of dirty jokes very young. There was this girl who told me them. The gang I led went in for shoplifting and pulling girls' knickers down. Other boys' parents hated me.
JOHN LENNON
Life Magazine, September 13, 1968
Christ, you know it ain't easy
You know how hard it can be.
The way things are going,
they're going to crucify me.
JOHN LENNON
"Ballad of John and Yoko"
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.
JOHN LENNON
interview, Playboy, September 1980
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
The Dick Cavett Show, September 24, 1971
We must always remember to thank the CIA and the Army for LSD. That's what people forget.... They invented LSD to control people and what they did was give us freedom.
JOHN LENNON
interview, Playboy, January 1981
Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about
Strawberry Fields forever
JOHN LENNON
"Strawberry Fields Forever"
You have to be a bastard to make it, and that's a fact. And the Beatles are the biggest bastards on earth.
JOHN LENNON
attributed, Lennon Remembers
You should have gone west to America. You would have been a senior citizen of Boston. But you took a wrong turn, and what happened? You're a lonely old man from Liverpool.
JOHN LENNON
A Hard Day's Night
Leave a space and something will fill it.
JOHN LENNON
All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono
One thing you can't hide is when you're crippled inside.
JOHN LENNON
"Crippled Inside"
I really thought that love would save us all.
JOHN LENNON
attributed, The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 10, 1980
All we are saying is give peace a chance!
JOHN LENNON
"Give Peace a Chance"
What's Bagism? It's like... a tag for what we all do, we're all in a bag ya know, and we realised that we came from two bags, I was in this pop bag going round and round in my little clique, and she was in her little avant-garde clique going round and round, and you're in your little tele clique and they're in their...ya know? and we all sort of come out and look at each other every now and then, but we don't communicate. And we all intellectualize about how there is no barrier between art, music, poetry... but we're still all "I'm a rock and roller, he's a poet" ... so we just came up with the word so you would ask us what bagism is, and we'd say "WE'RE ALL IN A BAG BABY!"
JOHN LENNON
interview, The David Frost Show, June 14, 1969
It's amazing how low you go to get high.
JOHN LENNON
"The Art of Deception is in the Eye of the Beholder", Skywriting by Word of Mouth