Awards
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.
Source:
http://www.cyber-nation.com/victory/quotations/
authors/quotes_lennon_john.html
Booze
"When you're thirty-five, you can't take as
much booze ... and I always got a little
violent on drink...So it was kind of a
self-destructive suicide side of me, which
is resolving itself for the better, I believe,
because I never enjoyed it..."
John Lennon
Cheap Seats
Would those of you in the cheaper seats clap your
hands? And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle
your jewelry.
John Lennon
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/John_Lennon/
Christianity
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.
John Lennon
Source:BQ
Control
"Nobody controls me. I'm uncontrollable. The
only one who can control me is me, and that's
just barely possible. And that's the lesson I'm
learning. If someone's going to impress me,
whether it be a Maharishi or Yoko, then there
comes a point where the emperor has no clothes
'cause I'm naive, but I'm not stupid. For all
you folks out there who think I'm having the
wool pulled over my eyes, well, that's an insult
to me. But if you think you know me, or you have
some part of me because of the music, and then
you think I'm being controlled like a dog on a
leash because I do things with her, then screw you,
brother or sister, you don't know what's happening.
I'm not here for you, I'm here for me and her,
and now the baby"
John Lennon
Cry
"My defences 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
Death
I'm not afraid of death because I don't believe in it.
It's just getting out of one car, and into another.
John Lennon
Source:quotes.prolix.nu
Demon
"Song writing 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 night, or 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."
John Lennon
Dream
“A dream you dream together is reality.”
John Lennon
Source:http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/living/11140450.htm
You make your own dream. That's the Beatles'
story, isn't it? That's Yoko's story . That's what
I'm saying now. Produce your own dream. If you
want to save Peru, go save Peru. It's quite
possible to do anything, but not to put it on the
leaders and the parking meters. Don't expect
Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan or John Lennon
or Yoko Ono or Bob Dylan or Jesus Christ to
come and do it for you. You have to do it yourself.
That's what the great masters and mistresses
have been saying ever since time began. They
can point the way, leave signposts and little
instructions in various books that are now
called holy and worshipped for the cover of the
book and not for what it says, but the instructions
are all there for all to see, have always been
and always will be. There's nothing new under
the sun. All the roads lead to Rome. And people
cannot provide it for you. I can't wake you up. You
can wake you up. I can't cure you. You can cure
you.
John Lennon
Source:quotes.prolix.nu
Dreamer
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
John Lennon
Source: Song, Imagine
Drugs
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?
John Lennon
Source:quotes.prolix.nu
"Once you're so depressed that you get into drugs,
once you're on them, it's very, very hard to see
the light or to have any kind of hope. All you
think about is the drug, and it's no good to us
preaching at people and saying don't take them.
Because that doesn't work. It's like the church
telling you not to drink or not to have sex when
you're a kid. There's nothing on earth gonna do
it. But 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. You need
hope, and hope is something that you build within
yourself and with your friends. It's a very
difficult situation, drugs ... 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 personal, social,
emotional reasons. It's something to be avoided if
one can help it."
John Lennon
Egomaniac
"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."
John Lennon
Elvis
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?
Source:
http://www.cyber-nation.com/victory/quotations/
authors/quotes_lennon_john.html
Fishbowl
You're in a fishbowl so make use of it, man.
John Lennon
Source:quotes.prolix.nu
Flea
"I don't intend to be a performing flea anymore.
I was the dreamweaver, but although I'll be
around I don't intend to be running at 20,000
miles an hour trying to prove myself.
I don't want to die at 40."
John Lennon
Source:http://members.aol.com/tawmayboy/lennon.htm
Freak
"I'm not going to 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."
John Lennon
God
I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as
an old man in the sky. I believe that what
people call God is something in all of us. I
believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and
Buddha and all the rest said was right.
It's just that the translations have
gone wrong.
John Lennon
Source:BQ
Guilt
"Guilt for being rich, and guilt thinking that
perhaps love and peace isn't enough and you
have to go and get shot or something."
John Lennon 1980
Hip
"In one way, I was always hip. I was hip in
kindergarten. I was different from the
others. There was something wrong with me,
I thought, because I seemed to see things
people didn't see. I always saw things in
a hallucinatory way."
John Lennon
House Husband
"I've been baking bread and looking after the
baby...Everyone else who has asked me that
question over the last few years says. 'But what
else have you been doing?' To which I say, 'Are
you kidding?' Because bread and babies, as every
housewife knows, is a full-time job. After I made
the loaves [of bread,] I felt like I had
conquered something. But as I watched the bread
being eaten, I thought, Well, Jesus, don't I get
a gold record or knighted or nothing?"
John Lennon
Idiot
"As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot.
Instant Karma
I wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch
and we're putting it out for dinner.
John Lennon
Source:http://woburn.patch.com/articles/five-things-you-
need-to-know-today-jan-27-a5ebdffa
Jesus's Disciples
"Jesus was all right but his disciples were
thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that
ruins it for me."
John Lennon
Kids
"You can't cheat kids. If you cheat them
when they're children they'll make you pay
when they're sixteen or seventeen by
revolting against you or hating you or all
those so-called teenage problems. I think
that's finally when they're old enough to
stand up to you and say, 'What a hypocrite
you've been all this time. You've never
given me what I really wanted, which is
you."
John Lennon, "Beautiful Boy"
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/John_Lennon/
Killing
"I don't believe in killing whatever the reason!"
John Lennon
Knowledge
The more I see the less I know for sure.
John Lennon
Source:BQ
Life
Life is what happens to you while you're busy
making other plans.
John Lennon, "Beautiful Boy"
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/John_Lennon/
Love
"Love is the flower you've got to let grow."
"Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once
given never forgotten, never let it disappear."
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.
John Lennon
Source:BQ
Marriage
Rituals are important. Nowadays it's hip
not to be married. I'm not interested in
being hip.
Source:
http://www.cyber-nation.com/victory/quotations/
authors/quotes_lennon_john.html
Music
"The first year I had this sort of feeling
in the back of my mind that I ought to [be
doing music]. And I'd go through periods
of panic, because I was not in Billboard
or being seen at Studio 54 with Mick and
Bianca. I mean, I didn't exist anymore. It
would become like a paranoia, and then it
would go away, because I'd be involved
with the baby. And I realized there was a
life without it - life after death."
John Lennon
"The idea of being a rock and roll musician
sort of suited my talents and mentality.
The freedom was great, but then I found out
I wasn't free. I'd got boxed in ...The
whole Beatle thing is just beyond
comprehension ... subconsciously I was
crying for help."
John Lennon
Music is everybody's possession. It's only
publishers who think that people own it.
John Lennon
Source:quotes.prolix.nu
"For a long time I wasn't listening to music,
to the rock and roll stuff on the radio, because
it would cause me to get sweaty. It would bring
back memories I didn't want to know about, or I
would get that feeling that I'm not alive 'cause
I'm not making it. And if it was good, I hated it
'cause I wasn't doing it. And if it was bad, I
was furious 'cause I could've done it better..."
John Lennon
"When real music comes to me - the music of the
spheres, the music that surpasses understanding -
that has nothing to do with me, cause I'm just the
channel. The only joy for me is for it to be given
to me, and to transcribe it like a medium...
those moments are what I live for."
John Lennon
My Role
"My role in society, or any artist's 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."
John Lennon
Newspapers
Newspaper people have a habit of putting you in the
front pages to sell their papers, and then after
they've sold their papers and got big circulation's,
they say, 'Look at what we've done for you.'
John Lennon
Source:BQ
Parent
"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. To put it loosely, the reason why
kids are crazy is because nobody can face the
responsibility of bringing them up..."
John Lennon
Peace
If everyone demanded peace instead of another
television set, then there'd be peace.
John Lennon
Source:quotes.prolix.nu
"It just was a gradual development over the years.
I mean last year was 'all you need is love.'
This year, it's 'all you need is love and peace,
baby.' Give peace a chance, and remember Love.
The only hope for us is peace. Violence begets
violence. You can have peace as soon as you like
if we all pull together. You're all geniuses, and
you're all beautiful. You don't need anyone to tell
you who you are. You are what you are. Get out there
and get peace, think peace, and live peace and
breathe peace, and you'll get it as soon as you like."
Perfection
"But nobody's perfect, etc., etc. Whether it's
Janov or Erhardt or Maharishi or a Beatle.
That doesn't take away from their message. It's
like learning how to swim. The swimming is fine.
But forget about the teacher. If the Beatles had
a message, it was that. With the Beatles, the
records are the point, not the Beatles as
individuals. You don't need the package, just as
you don't need the Christian package or the
Marxist package to get the message. People always
got the image I was an anti-Christ or
antireligion. I'm not. I'm a most religious fellow.
I was brought up a Christian and I only now
understand some of the things that Christ was saying
in those parables. Because people got hooked on the
teacher and missed the message. All this bit about
electing a President. We pick our own daddy out of
a dog pound of daddies."
John Lennon
Personal
"I still don't know how to express the really
delicate personal stuff. People think that
Plastic Ono is very personal, but there are some
subtleties of emotions which I cannot seem to
express in pop music, and it frustrates me. Maybe
that's why I still search for other ways of
expressing myself. Song writing is a limiting
experience in some ways - writing down words that
have to rhyme."
John Lennon
Possession
"Possession isn't nine-tenths of the law. It's
nine-tenths of the problem."
Radio
I never listen to the radio. If it's bad, I make
fun of it, and if it's good, I get jealous that
I didn't think of it.
John Lennon
Source:quotes.prolix.nu
Reality
"I believe in everything until it's disproved.
So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons.
It all exists, even if it's in your mind.
Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't
as real as the here and now? Reality leaves a
lot to the imagination."
John Lennon
Source:http://members.aol.com/tawmayboy/lennon.htm
Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.
John Lennon
Source:BQ
Rebel
"I always was a rebel...but on the other hand,
I wanted to be loved and accepted...and not
just be a loudmouth, lunatic, poet, musician.
But I cannot be what I am not."
John Lennon
Scream
When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would
be incredibly pleased if someone would have
the foresight to notice me drowning and come
and help me,' you just scream.
John Lennon
Source:BQ
Son
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.
John Lennon
Source:BQ
Surrealism
"Surrealism had a great effect on me because then
I realised that the imagery in my mind wasn't
insanity. Surrealism to me is reality"
John Lennon
Swim
"If The Beatles or the 60's had a message, it was
'Learn to swim, and once you've learned-SWIM."
John Lennon
Source:http://members.aol.com/tawmayboy/lennon.htm
Time
Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.
John Lennon
Source:BQ
Unknown
"It's fear of the unknown. The unknown is what it is.
And to be frightened of it is what sends everybody
scurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars,
peace, love, hate, all that--it's all illusion.
Unknown is what it is. Accept that it's unknown and
it's plain sailing. Everything is unknown--then you're
ahead of the game. That's what it is. Right?"
Unreleased stuff
"Everything I've ever done is out. I don't have
boxes of unreleased stuff. There's nothing in the
files. I can never keep anything unless I don't
like the sound of it or it didn't work. If I can
sing it to an engineer, I can sing it to anyone..."
John Lennon
Yoko
"They want to hold onto something they never had
in the first place. Anybody who claims to have
some interest in me as an individual artist or
even as part of the Beatles has absolutely
misunderstood everything I ever said if they
can't see why I'm with Yoko. And if they can't
see that, they don't see anything. They're just
jacking off to - it could be anybody. Mick
Jagger or somebody else. Let them go jack off to
Mick Jagger, okay? I don't need it."
John Lennon
"Before Yoko and I met, we were half a person. You
know there's an old myth about people being half
and the other half being in the sky, or in heaven
or on the other side of the universe or a mirror
image. But we are two halves, and together
we're a whole."
John Lennon
We've broken down a few barriers between us. which
we had to do because we had two big egos. two
individual artists - and with love we overcame that.
John Lennon
I'd never met a woman I considered as intelligent
as me. That sounds bigheaded, but every woman I met
was either a dolly-chick, or a sort of screwed-up
intellectual chick. And of course, in the field I
was in, I didn't meet many intellectual people
anyway. I always had this dream of meeting an artist,
an artist girl who would be like me. And I thought
it was a myth, but then I met Yoko and that was it.
John Lennon
Yoko looks upon men as assistants. . . . Of varying
degrees of intimacy, but basically assistants. And
this one's going to take a pee.
(Exits to the restrooms)
John Lennon
Anybody who knows our history knows that we went
through all hell together - through miscarriages
and terrible times.
John Lennon
We are both sensitive people and we were hurt a
lot by it. I mean, we couldn't understand it.
When you're in love, when somebody says something
like, 'How can you be with that woman?' you say,
'What do you mean? I am with this goddess of love,
the fulfilment of my whole life. Why are you
saying this? Why do you want to throw a rock at
her or punish me for being in love with her?' Our
love helped us survive it, but some of it was
pretty violent. There were a few times when we
nearly went under, but we managed to survive it
and here we are.
John Lennon
We haven't been apart for more than one hour in
two years. Everything we do is together, and
that's what gives us our strength.
John Lennon
When [Yoko and I] got back together, we decided
that this is our life. That having a baby was
important to us, and that everything else was
subsidiary to that, and therefore everything else
had to be abandoned. I mean, abandonment gave us
the fulfillment we were looking for and the space
to breathe."
John Lennon
With us it's a teacher - pupil relationship.
That's what people don't understand. She's the
teacher and I'm the pupil. I'm the famous one. I'm
supposed to know everything. But she taught me
everything I fucking know."
John Lennon
You
"You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what
you are. You are what you are!"
John Lennon
Your Own God
"You're just left with yourself all the
time, whatever you do anyway. You've got
to get down to your own God in your own
temple. It's all down to you, mate."
John Lennon
Awards 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. Source: http://www.cyber-nation.com/victory/quotations/ authors/quotes_lennon_john.html Booze "When you're thirty-five, you can't take as much booze ... and I always got a little violent on drink...So it was kind of a self-destructive suicide side of me, which is resolving itself for the better, I believe, because I never enjoyed it..." John Lennon Cheap Seats Would those of you in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry. John Lennon http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/John_Lennon/ Christianity 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. John Lennon Source:BQ Control "Nobody controls me. I'm uncontrollable. The only one who can control me is me, and that's just barely possible. And that's the lesson I'm learning. If someone's going to impress me, whether it be a Maharishi or Yoko, then there comes a point where the emperor has no clothes 'cause I'm naive, but I'm not stupid. For all you folks out there who think I'm having the wool pulled over my eyes, well, that's an insult to me. But if you think you know me, or you have some part of me because of the music, and then you think I'm being controlled like a dog on a leash because I do things with her, then screw you, brother or sister, you don't know what's happening. I'm not here for you, I'm here for me and her, and now the baby" John Lennon Cry "My defences 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 Death I'm not afraid of death because I don't believe in it. It's just getting out of one car, and into another. John Lennon Source:quotes.prolix.nu
Demon "Song writing 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 night, or 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." John Lennon Dream “A dream you dream together is reality.” John Lennon Source:http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/living/11140450.htm You make your own dream. That's the Beatles' story, isn't it? That's Yoko's story . That's what I'm saying now. Produce your own dream. If you want to save Peru, go save Peru. It's quite possible to do anything, but not to put it on the leaders and the parking meters. Don't expect Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan or John Lennon or Yoko Ono or Bob Dylan or Jesus Christ to come and do it for you. You have to do it yourself. That's what the great masters and mistresses have been saying ever since time began. They can point the way, leave signposts and little instructions in various books that are now called holy and worshipped for the cover of the book and not for what it says, but the instructions are all there for all to see, have always been and always will be. There's nothing new under the sun. All the roads lead to Rome. And people cannot provide it for you. I can't wake you up. You can wake you up. I can't cure you. You can cure you. John Lennon Source:quotes.prolix.nu Dreamer You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one John Lennon Source: Song, Imagine
Drugs 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? John Lennon Source:quotes.prolix.nu "Once you're so depressed that you get into drugs, once you're on them, it's very, very hard to see the light or to have any kind of hope. All you think about is the drug, and it's no good to us preaching at people and saying don't take them. Because that doesn't work. It's like the church telling you not to drink or not to have sex when you're a kid. There's nothing on earth gonna do it. But 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. You need hope, and hope is something that you build within yourself and with your friends. It's a very difficult situation, drugs ... 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 personal, social, emotional reasons. It's something to be avoided if one can help it." John Lennon Egomaniac "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." John Lennon
Elvis 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? Source: http://www.cyber-nation.com/victory/quotations/ authors/quotes_lennon_john.html Fishbowl You're in a fishbowl so make use of it, man. John Lennon Source:quotes.prolix.nu Flea "I don't intend to be a performing flea anymore. I was the dreamweaver, but although I'll be around I don't intend to be running at 20,000 miles an hour trying to prove myself. I don't want to die at 40." John Lennon Source:http://members.aol.com/tawmayboy/lennon.htm Freak "I'm not going to 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." John Lennon God I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong. John Lennon Source:BQ Guilt "Guilt for being rich, and guilt thinking that perhaps love and peace isn't enough and you have to go and get shot or something." John Lennon 1980 Hip "In one way, I was always hip. I was hip in kindergarten. I was different from the others. There was something wrong with me, I thought, because I seemed to see things people didn't see. I always saw things in a hallucinatory way." John Lennon House Husband "I've been baking bread and looking after the baby...Everyone else who has asked me that question over the last few years says. 'But what else have you been doing?' To which I say, 'Are you kidding?' Because bread and babies, as every housewife knows, is a full-time job. After I made the loaves [of bread,] I felt like I had conquered something. But as I watched the bread being eaten, I thought, Well, Jesus, don't I get a gold record or knighted or nothing?" John Lennon Idiot "As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot. Instant Karma I wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch and we're putting it out for dinner. John Lennon Source:http://woburn.patch.com/articles/five-things-you- need-to-know-today-jan-27-a5ebdffa Jesus's Disciples "Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me." John Lennon Kids "You can't cheat kids. If you cheat them when they're children they'll make you pay when they're sixteen or seventeen by revolting against you or hating you or all those so-called teenage problems. I think that's finally when they're old enough to stand up to you and say, 'What a hypocrite you've been all this time. You've never given me what I really wanted, which is you." John Lennon, "Beautiful Boy" http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/John_Lennon/ Killing "I don't believe in killing whatever the reason!" John Lennon Knowledge The more I see the less I know for sure. John Lennon Source:BQ
Life Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. John Lennon, "Beautiful Boy" http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/John_Lennon/ Love "Love is the flower you've got to let grow." "Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear." 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. John Lennon Source:BQ Marriage Rituals are important. Nowadays it's hip not to be married. I'm not interested in being hip. Source: http://www.cyber-nation.com/victory/quotations/ authors/quotes_lennon_john.html Music "The first year I had this sort of feeling in the back of my mind that I ought to [be doing music]. And I'd go through periods of panic, because I was not in Billboard or being seen at Studio 54 with Mick and Bianca. I mean, I didn't exist anymore. It would become like a paranoia, and then it would go away, because I'd be involved with the baby. And I realized there was a life without it - life after death." John Lennon "The idea of being a rock and roll musician sort of suited my talents and mentality. The freedom was great, but then I found out I wasn't free. I'd got boxed in ...The whole Beatle thing is just beyond comprehension ... subconsciously I was crying for help." John Lennon Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it. John Lennon Source:quotes.prolix.nu "For a long time I wasn't listening to music, to the rock and roll stuff on the radio, because it would cause me to get sweaty. It would bring back memories I didn't want to know about, or I would get that feeling that I'm not alive 'cause I'm not making it. And if it was good, I hated it 'cause I wasn't doing it. And if it was bad, I was furious 'cause I could've done it better..." John Lennon "When real music comes to me - the music of the spheres, the music that surpasses understanding - that has nothing to do with me, cause I'm just the channel. The only joy for me is for it to be given to me, and to transcribe it like a medium... those moments are what I live for." John Lennon My Role "My role in society, or any artist's 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." John Lennon Newspapers Newspaper people have a habit of putting you in the front pages to sell their papers, and then after they've sold their papers and got big circulation's, they say, 'Look at what we've done for you.' John Lennon Source:BQ Parent "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. To put it loosely, the reason why kids are crazy is because nobody can face the responsibility of bringing them up..." John Lennon Peace If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace. John Lennon Source:quotes.prolix.nu "It just was a gradual development over the years. I mean last year was 'all you need is love.' This year, it's 'all you need is love and peace, baby.' Give peace a chance, and remember Love. The only hope for us is peace. Violence begets violence. You can have peace as soon as you like if we all pull together. You're all geniuses, and you're all beautiful. You don't need anyone to tell you who you are. You are what you are. Get out there and get peace, think peace, and live peace and breathe peace, and you'll get it as soon as you like."
Perfection "But nobody's perfect, etc., etc. Whether it's Janov or Erhardt or Maharishi or a Beatle. That doesn't take away from their message. It's like learning how to swim. The swimming is fine. But forget about the teacher. If the Beatles had a message, it was that. With the Beatles, the records are the point, not the Beatles as individuals. You don't need the package, just as you don't need the Christian package or the Marxist package to get the message. People always got the image I was an anti-Christ or antireligion. I'm not. I'm a most religious fellow. I was brought up a Christian and I only now understand some of the things that Christ was saying in those parables. Because people got hooked on the teacher and missed the message. All this bit about electing a President. We pick our own daddy out of a dog pound of daddies." John Lennon Personal "I still don't know how to express the really delicate personal stuff. People think that Plastic Ono is very personal, but there are some subtleties of emotions which I cannot seem to express in pop music, and it frustrates me. Maybe that's why I still search for other ways of expressing myself. Song writing is a limiting experience in some ways - writing down words that have to rhyme." John Lennon Possession "Possession isn't nine-tenths of the law. It's nine-tenths of the problem." Radio I never listen to the radio. If it's bad, I make fun of it, and if it's good, I get jealous that I didn't think of it. John Lennon Source:quotes.prolix.nu
Reality "I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now? Reality leaves a lot to the imagination." John Lennon Source:http://members.aol.com/tawmayboy/lennon.htm Reality leaves a lot to the imagination. John Lennon Source:BQ Rebel "I always was a rebel...but on the other hand, I wanted to be loved and accepted...and not just be a loudmouth, lunatic, poet, musician. But I cannot be what I am not." John Lennon Scream When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream. John Lennon Source:BQ Son 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. John Lennon Source:BQ Surrealism "Surrealism had a great effect on me because then I realised that the imagery in my mind wasn't insanity. Surrealism to me is reality" John Lennon Swim "If The Beatles or the 60's had a message, it was 'Learn to swim, and once you've learned-SWIM." John Lennon Source:http://members.aol.com/tawmayboy/lennon.htm Time Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted. John Lennon Source:BQ Unknown "It's fear of the unknown. The unknown is what it is. And to be frightened of it is what sends everybody scurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love, hate, all that--it's all illusion. Unknown is what it is. Accept that it's unknown and it's plain sailing. Everything is unknown--then you're ahead of the game. That's what it is. Right?" Unreleased stuff "Everything I've ever done is out. I don't have boxes of unreleased stuff. There's nothing in the files. I can never keep anything unless I don't like the sound of it or it didn't work. If I can sing it to an engineer, I can sing it to anyone..." John Lennon Yoko "They want to hold onto something they never had in the first place. Anybody who claims to have some interest in me as an individual artist or even as part of the Beatles has absolutely misunderstood everything I ever said if they can't see why I'm with Yoko. And if they can't see that, they don't see anything. They're just jacking off to - it could be anybody. Mick Jagger or somebody else. Let them go jack off to Mick Jagger, okay? I don't need it." John Lennon "Before Yoko and I met, we were half a person. You know there's an old myth about people being half and the other half being in the sky, or in heaven or on the other side of the universe or a mirror image. But we are two halves, and together we're a whole." John Lennon We've broken down a few barriers between us. which we had to do because we had two big egos. two individual artists - and with love we overcame that. John Lennon I'd never met a woman I considered as intelligent as me. That sounds bigheaded, but every woman I met was either a dolly-chick, or a sort of screwed-up intellectual chick. And of course, in the field I was in, I didn't meet many intellectual people anyway. I always had this dream of meeting an artist, an artist girl who would be like me. And I thought it was a myth, but then I met Yoko and that was it. John Lennon Yoko looks upon men as assistants. . . . Of varying degrees of intimacy, but basically assistants. And this one's going to take a pee. (Exits to the restrooms) John Lennon Anybody who knows our history knows that we went through all hell together - through miscarriages and terrible times. John Lennon We are both sensitive people and we were hurt a lot by it. I mean, we couldn't understand it. When you're in love, when somebody says something like, 'How can you be with that woman?' you say, 'What do you mean? I am with this goddess of love, the fulfilment of my whole life. Why are you saying this? Why do you want to throw a rock at her or punish me for being in love with her?' Our love helped us survive it, but some of it was pretty violent. There were a few times when we nearly went under, but we managed to survive it and here we are. John Lennon We haven't been apart for more than one hour in two years. Everything we do is together, and that's what gives us our strength. John Lennon When [Yoko and I] got back together, we decided that this is our life. That having a baby was important to us, and that everything else was subsidiary to that, and therefore everything else had to be abandoned. I mean, abandonment gave us the fulfillment we were looking for and the space to breathe." John Lennon With us it's a teacher - pupil relationship. That's what people don't understand. She's the teacher and I'm the pupil. I'm the famous one. I'm supposed to know everything. But she taught me everything I fucking know." John Lennon You "You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!" John Lennon Your Own God "You're just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You've got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It's all down to you, mate." John Lennon
