JOHN LENNON QUOTES III
British singer/songwriter (1940-1980)
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
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
Sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun
If the sun don't come
You get a tan from standing in the English rain
JOHN LENNON
"I Am the Walrus"
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
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
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"
Mother, you had me, but I never had you.
JOHN LENNON
"Mother"
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
People never grasp the fact that they're going to have to go through the same thing again. They get to the sort of five-year stretch or the seven-year itch or whatever these tension points are that seem to be organic, built in, like the tide coming in and going out. It's like every time the tide goes out you quit--you move your house or something.
JOHN LENNON
All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono
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
We know how to behave! We've had lessons.
JOHN LENNON
A Hard Day's Night
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
I really thought that love would save us all.
JOHN LENNON
attributed, The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 10, 1980
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
One thing you can't hide is when you're crippled inside.
JOHN LENNON
"Crippled Inside"
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
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
Leave a space and something will fill it.
JOHN LENNON
All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono
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