JOHN LENNON QUOTES II

British singer/songwriter (1940-1980)

John Lennon

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


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"


I'm not claiming divinity. I've never claimed purity of soul. I've never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can.

JOHN LENNON

interview, Rolling Stone, 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


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


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

Tags: freedom


Children, Don't do what I have done
I couldn't walk so I tried to run

JOHN LENNON

"Mother"


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


Mother, you had me, but I never had you.

JOHN LENNON

"Mother"


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"


I really thought that love would save us all.

JOHN LENNON

attributed, The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 10, 1980

Tags: love


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"

Tags: sanity


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

Tags: drugs


Happiness is just how you feel when you don't feel miserable.

JOHN LENNON

The Beatles Anthology

Tags: happiness


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


We know how to behave! We've had lessons.

JOHN LENNON

A Hard Day's Night


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

Tags: society


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


I am he as you are he as you are me
And we are all together

JOHN LENNON

"I Am the Walrus"


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"