More John Lennon Quotes

The wit and wisdom of John Lennon. Here are some of his best quotes.

On Elvis Presley: "Before Elvis, there was nothing."

On The Beatles: " we were a band who made it very, very big. That's all."

On Paul McCartney: " In 'We Can Work It Out', Paul did the first half, I did the middle-eight. But you've got Paul writing; 'we can work it out, we can work it out', real optimistic, you know, and me impatient; 'life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend'."


On George Harrison: "George's relationship with me was one of young follower and older guy. He's three or four years younger than me. It's a love hate relationship and I think George still bears resentment toward me for being a daddy who left home."

On Ringo Starr: "He was always a good drummer. He's not technically good, but I think Ringo's drumming is underrated the same way Paul's bass playing is underrated."

On George Martin: "George made us what we were in the studio. He helped us develop a language to talk to other musicians."

On New York City: "If I'd lived in Roman times, I'd have lived in Rome. Where else? Today America is the Roman empire and New York is Rome itself."

On Yoko Ono: "It wasn't that she inspired the songs. She inspired me."

On The Sixties: "The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility."

On Fame: "The postman wants an autograph. The cab driver wants a picture. The waitress wants a handshake. Everyone wants a piece of you."

On Himself: "I'm not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I've always been a freak. So I've been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I'm one of those people."