JOHN LENNON QUOTES III
British singer/songwriter (1940-1980)
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
interview, Playboy, January 1981
Leave a space and something will fill it.
JOHN LENNON
All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono
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
"What Can I Tell You about Myself which You Have Not Already Found Out from Those Who Do Not Lie?", The Beatles Anthology
We know how to behave! We've had lessons.
JOHN LENNON
A Hard Day's Night
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
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
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
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
It's only sane to be insane
Psychotic builds a castle
And neurotic lives in it
I don't know what to do with my sanity
When the world's at the verge of calamity
JOHN LENNON & YOKO ONO
"O'Sanity"
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"
One thing you can't hide is when you're crippled inside.
JOHN LENNON
"Crippled Inside"
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
I really thought that love would save us all.
JOHN LENNON
attributed, The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 10, 1980
Mother, you had me, but I never had you.
JOHN LENNON
"Mother"
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
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
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.
JOHN LENNON
interview, KFRC RKO Radio, December 8, 1980
Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns it calls me on and on across the universe.
JOHN LENNON
"Across the Universe"
Children, Don't do what I have done
I couldn't walk so I tried to run
JOHN LENNON
"Mother"