British singer/songwriter (1940-1980)
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
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interview, KFRC RKO Radio, December 8, 1980
Mother, you had me, but I never had you.
JOHN LENNON
"Mother"
I really thought that love would save us all.
JOHN LENNON
attributed, The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 10, 1980
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
Leave a space and something will fill it.
JOHN LENNON
All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono
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"
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"
That's part of our policy, is not to be taken seriously, because I think our opposition, whoever they may be, in all their manifest forms, don't know how to handle humor. You know, and we are humorous, we are, what are they, Laurel and Hardy. That's John and Yoko, and we stand a better chance under that guise, because all the serious people, like Martin Luther King, and Kennedy, and Gandhi, got shot.
JOHN LENNON
BBC interview with David Wigg, May 8, 1969
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
God is a concept by which we measure our pain.
JOHN LENNON
"God"
One thing you can't hide is when you're crippled inside.
JOHN LENNON
"Crippled Inside"
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"
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
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
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
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
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
Children, Don't do what I have done
I couldn't walk so I tried to run
JOHN LENNON
"Mother"
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
Everything is as important as everything else.
JOHN LENNON
The Beatles Anthology