JOHN LENNON QUOTES II
British singer/songwriter (1940-1980)
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
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
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"
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
We know how to behave! We've had lessons.
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"
Everything is as important as everything else.
JOHN LENNON
The Beatles Anthology
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
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
I go to restaurants and the groups always play "Yesterday." I even signed a guy's violin in Spain after he played us "Yesterday." He couldn't understand that I didn't write the song. But I guess he couldn't have gone from table to table playing "I Am The Walrus."
JOHN LENNON
interview, Playboy, January 1981
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
One thing you can't hide is when you're crippled inside.
JOHN LENNON
"Crippled Inside"
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"
Everyone deserves to believe they are beautiful.
JOHN LENNON
The Beatles Anthology
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"
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
Happiness is just how you feel when you don't feel miserable.
JOHN LENNON
The Beatles Anthology
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
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