British singer/songwriter (1940-1980)
I'm not gonna 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
interview, Playboy, September 1980
Yes is the answer and you know that for sure.
Yes is surrender, you got to let it, you got to let it go...
JOHN LENNON
"Mind Games"
As I play the game of life
I try to make it better each and every day.
And when I struggle in the night
The magic of the music seems to light the way.
JOHN LENNON
"Intuition"
Happiness is a warm gun.
JOHN LENNON
"Happiness is a Warm Gun", White Album
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
interview, KFRC RKO Radio, December 8, 1980
Whatever gets you through the night.
It's alright. It's alright.
JOHN LENNON
"Whatever Gets You Through the Night"
I'm dissatisfied with every record the Beatles ever f***ing made. There ain't one of them I wouldn't remake.
JOHN LENNON
interview, Playboy, January 1981
There are places I remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
JOHN LENNON
"In My Life"
Women ... I mean, they are the other half of the sky, and without them there is nothing. And without us there's nothing. There's only the two together creating children, creating society.
JOHN LENNON
interview, KFRC RKO Radio, December 8, 1980
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
Evening Standard, March 4, 1966
Speaking as somebody who's been in the drug scene, it's not something you can go on and on doing, you know. It's like drink, or anything, you've got to come to terms with it. You know, like too much food, or too much anything. You've got to get out of it. You're left with yourself all the time, whatever you do--you know, meditation, drugs or anything. But you've got to get down to your own god and your own temple in your head.
JOHN LENNON
ATV interview, December 2, 1969
You made me cry
When you said goodbye
Isn't that a shame
My tears fell like rain
Isn't that a shame
You're the one to blame
JOHN LENNON
"Ain't That a Shame"
Half of what I say is meaningless
But I say it just to reach you
JOHN LENNON
"Julia"
Control yourself. You'll spurt.
JOHN LENNON
A Hard Day's Night
Yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog's eye
Crabalocker fishwife pornographic priestess
Boy you been a naughty girl, you let your knickers down
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen
I am the walrus, goo goo goo joob
JOHN LENNON
"I Am the Walrus"
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
news conference, August 11, 1966
We all been playing those mind games forever
Some kinda druid dudes lifting the veil.
Doing the mind guerrilla,
Some call it magic -- the search for the grail.
JOHN LENNON
"Mind Games"
Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see
It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out
It doesn't matter much to me
JOHN LENNON
"Strawberry Fields Forever"
We're just going to play rock and roll and not do anything else; we're going to stay in our rooms, and the world is a nasty, horrible place because it didn't give us everything we cried for. Right?
JOHN LENNON
attributed, The Beatles: A Recording History
When [Yoko] kicked me out, I saw I was kicked out. When I was kicked out, I realized where I was, which was on a raft in the middle of the universe, and whatever happened, presuming I could have started another relationship, I would have ended up in the same place--if I was lucky. And that's a big if.
JOHN LENNON
All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono