John Lennon Quotes
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I'd spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good, and I finally gave up and lay down. Then, "Nowhere Man" came, words and music, the whole damn thing, as I lay down...Song writing is about getting the demon out of me. It's like being possessed. You try to go to sleep, but the song won't let you. So you have to get up and make it into something, and then you're allowed sleep.
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A mistake is only an error, it becomes a mistake when you fail to correct it...
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You can only breathe out if you breathe in.
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I was trying to say something about Christianity, the idea that you have to be tortured to attain heaven. I didn't believe that.
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Where do people get off saying the Beatles should give $200,000,000 to South America? You know, America has poured billions into places like that. It doesn't mean a damn thing. After they've eaten that meal, then what? It lasts for only a day. After the $200,000,000 is gone, then what? It goes round and round in circles. You can pour money in forever. After Peru, then Harlem, then Britain. There is no one concert. We would have to dedicate the rest of our lives to one world concert tour, and I'm not ready for it. Not in this lifetime, anyway.
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But for me at any rate it was all part of dissolving the God trip or father-figure trip. Facing up to reality instead of always looking for some kind of heaven.
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The dream is over. I gotta get down to reality. The good old days is garbage.
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When I started, rock and roll itself was the basic revolution to people of my age and situation. We needed something loud and clear to break through all the unfeeling and repression that had been coming down on us kids.
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I'm dissatisfied with every record the Beatles ever f***ing made. There ain't one of them I wouldn't remake.
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Before Elvis there was nothing.
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I believe that God is like a powerhouse, like where you keep electricity, like a power station. And that he's a supreme power, and that he's neither good not bad, left, right, black or white. He just is. And we tap that source of power and make of it what we will. Just as electricity can kill people in a chair, or you can light a room with it. I think God is.
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The best things in life are free, but you can keep them for the birds and bees; I want money.
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When I was singing about 'All You Need Is Love' I was talking about something I hadn't experienced.
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The Beatles were just a band that made it very, very big, that's all.
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The greatest artists always come round to simplicity.
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If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that... I believe in what I do, and I'll say it.
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There was never any question about it: we with Yoko Ono had to have a 50-50 relationship or there was no relationship, I was quick to learn.
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Free all the prisoners everywhere, all they want is truth and justice, all they need is love and care.
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I am not the Beatles. I'm me. Paul isn't the Beatles...The Beatles are the Beatles. Separately, they are separate.
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Sarcasim is the lowest form of humor.
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Polythene Pam was me, remembering a little event with a woman in Jersey, and a man who was England's answer to Allen Ginsberg, who gave us our first exposure - this is so long - you can't deal with all this. You see, everything triggers amazing memories. I met him when we were on tour and he took me back to his apartment and I had a girl and he had one he wanted me to meet. He said she dressed up in polythene, which she did. She didn't wear jackboots and kilts, I just sort of elaborated. Perverted sex in a polythene bag. Just looking for something to write about.
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We've learned over the years that if we wanted we could write anything that just felt good or sounded good and it didn't necessarily have to have any particular meaning to us. As odd as it seemed to us, reviewers would take it upon themselves to interject their own meanings on our lyrics. Sometimes we sit and read other people's interpretations of our lyrics and think, 'Hey, that's pretty good.' If we liked it, we would keep our mouths shut and just accept the credit as if it was what we meant all along.
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In my case I've never not been political, though religion tended to overshadow it in my acid days.
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I'd like to incite people to break the framework, to be disobedient in school, to stick their tongues out, to keep insulting authority.