British singer/songwriter (1940-1980)
We announce the birth of a conceptual country, NUTOPIA.
Citizenship of the country can be obtained by declaration of your awareness of NUTOPIA.
NUTOPIA has no land, no boundaries, no passports, only people.
NUTOPIA has no laws other than cosmic.
All people of NUTOPIA are ambassadors of the country.
As two ambassadors of NUTOPIA, we ask for diplomatic immunity and recognition in the United Nations of our country and our people.
JOHN LENNON
Declaration of Nutopia, co-signed with Yoko Ono, April 1, 1973
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
There's room at the top I'm telling you still
but first you must learn how to smile as you kill
if you want to be like the folks on the hill.
JOHN LENNON
"Working Class Hero"
Mother, you had me, but I never had you.
JOHN LENNON
"Mother"
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
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"
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
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
I really thought that love would save us all.
JOHN LENNON
attributed, The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 10, 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
I've always considered my work one piece and I consider that my work won't be finished until I am dead and buried and I hope that's a long, long time.
JOHN LENNON
interview with RKO Radio on the day of his murder, December 8, 1980
Nothing you can know that isn't known
Nothing you can see that isn't shown
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be
It's easy
JOHN LENNON
"All You Need Is Love"
All we are saying is give peace a chance!
JOHN LENNON
"Give Peace a Chance"
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
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"
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 am he as you are he as you are me
And we are all together
JOHN LENNON
"I Am the Walrus"
It's just natural, it's not a great disaster. People keep talking about it like it's The End of The Earth. It's only a rock group that split up, it's nothing important. You know, you have all the old records there if you want to reminisce.
JOHN LENNON
interview with David Wigg, Scene and Heard, October 25, 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