WAR IS OVER
John Lennon would have been 75 years old today. In honor of the occasion, we've compiled 75 quotes and lyrics attributed to the late rock icon . Enjoy, and remember.
On the Beatles:
"We're not Beatles to each other, you know. It's a joke to us. If we're going out the door of the hotel, we say, 'Right! Beatle John! Beatle George now! Come on, let's go!' We don't put on a false front or anything." — Look, 1966
"Paul (McCartney) and I made a deal when we were 15. There was never a legal deal between us, just a deal we made when we decided to write together that we put both our names on it, no matter what." — Playboy, published in 1981
"I said we were more popular than Jesus, which is a fact." — Look, 1966
"We were really professional by the time we got to the States; we had learned the whole game. When we arrived here we knew how to handle the press; the British press were the toughest in the world and we could handle anything. We were all right." — Rolling Stone, 1971
"You see, we're influenced by whatever's going. Even if we're not influenced, we're all going that way at a certain time. If we played a Stones record now — and a Beatles record — and we've been way apart, you'd find a lot of similarities. We're all heavy. Just heavy." — Rolling Stone, 1968
"Carrying The Beatles' or the Sixties' dream around all your life is like carrying the Second World War and Glenn Miller around. That's not to say you can't enjoy Glenn Miller or The Beatles, but to live in that dream is the twilight zone. It's not living now. It's an illusion." — Playboy, 1981
"They've been trying to knock us down since we began, especially the British press, always saying, 'What are you going to do when the bubble bursts?' That was the in-crowd joke with us. We'd go when we decided, not when some fickle public decided, because we were not a manufactured group. We knew what we were doing. — Rolling Stone, 1971, on The Beatles
"There is not one thing that's Beatle music. How can they talk about it like that? What is Beatle music? Walrus or Penny Lane? Which? It's too diverse: I Want to Hold Your Hand or Revolution Number Nine? — Rolling Stone, 1971
"Why should The Beatles give more? Didn't they give everything on God's earth for ten years? Didn't they give themselves?" — Playboy, 1981
"I've got used to the fact — just about — that whatever I do is going to be compared to the other Beatles. If I took up ballet dancing, my ballet dancing would be compared with Paul (McCartney)'s bowling." — Rolling Stone, 1975
"I said to Paul 'I'm leaving.' " — Rolling Stone, 1971, on quitting The Beatles
"It's like saying, you know, 'Did you remember falling in love?' Not quite. It just sort of happens" — The Dick Cavett Show, 1971, on his memories of breaking up with the Beatles
On songwriting:
"All we are saying is, 'This is what is happening to us.' We are sending postcards. I don't let it become 'I am the awakened; you are sheep that will be shown the way.' That is the danger of saying anything, you know." — Playboy, 1981
"I was trying to write about an affair without letting me wife know I was writing about an affair, so it was very gobbledegook. I was sort of writing from my experiences, girls' flats, things like that." — Rolling Stone, 1971, on writing Norwegian Wood years before
"The first line (of I Am The Walrus) was written on one acid trip one weekend. The second line was written on the next acid trip the next weekend, and it was filled in after I met Yoko." — Playboy, 1981
"They can take anything apart. I mean, I hit it on all levels, you know. We write lyrics, and I write lyrics that you don't realize what they mean till after." — Rolling Stone,1968, when asked about "philosophical analyses" of Strawberry Fields
"In Baby You're A Rich Man the point was, stop moaning, you're a rich man and we're all rich, heh heh, baby!" — Rolling Stone, 1968
"I'm always proud and pleased when people do my songs. It gives me pleasure that they even attempt them, because a lot of my songs aren't that doable." — Playboy, 1981
"The images (in Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds) were from Alice in Wonderland. It was Alice in the boat. She is buying an egg and it turns into Humpty Dumpty. The woman serving in the shop turns into a sheep and the next minute they are rowing in a rowing boat somewhere and I was visualizing that. There was also the image of the female who would someday come save me ... a 'girl with kaleidoscope eyes' who would come out of the sky. It turned out to be Yoko (Ono), though I hadn't met Yoko yet. So maybe it should be Yoko in the Sky With Diamonds." — Playboy, 1981
On himself:
"I'm cynical about society, politics, newspapers, government. But I'm not cynical about life, love, goodness, death. That's why I really don't want to be labeled a cynic." — Look, 1966
"I'm a freakin' artist, man, not a (expletive) race horse." — Rolling Stone, 1975
"Yes, if there is such a thing, I am one." — Rolling Stone, 1971, when asked if he thought he was a genius
"One of my big things is that I wish to be a fisherman. I know it sounds silly — and I'd sooner be rich than poor, and all the rest of that ... but I wish the pain was ignorance or bliss or something." — Rolling Stone, 1971
"I never went to high school reunions. My thing is, out of sight, out of mind. That's my attitude toward life. So I don't have any romanticism about any part of my past." — Playboy, 1981
"I'm not telling. Lots more than I ever had before." — Rolling Stone, 1971, asked how much money he had
"Nobody controls me. I'm uncontrollable. The only one who controls me is me, and that's just barely possible." — Playboy, 1981
On marriage to Yoko Ono:
"It was very romantic. It's all in the song, The Ballad of John and Yoko. If you want to know how it happened, it's in there. Gibraltar was like a little sunny dream. I couldn't find a white suit — I had sort of off-white corduroy trousers and a white jacket. Yoko had all white on." — Rolling Stone, 1971
"When we got married, we knew our honeymoon was going to be public, anyway, so we decided to use it to make a statement. We sat in bed and talked to reporters for seven days. It was hilarious. In effect, we were doing a commercial for peace on the front page of the papers instead of a commercial for war." — Playboy, 1981, on his and Ono's 1969 "Bed-In"
"I was a working-class macho guy who was used to being served and Yoko didn't buy that. From the day I met her, she demanded equal time, equal space, equal rights." — Newsweek, 1980
"She inspired all this creation in me. It wasn't that she inspired the songs; she inspired me." — Playboy, 1981
"It is a teacher-pupil relationship. That's what people don't understand. She's the teacher and I'm the pupil. I'm the famous one, the one who's supposed to know everything, but she's my teacher." — Playboy, 1981
On fatherhood:
"If you know your history, it took (Ono and me) a long time to have a live baby. And I wanted to give five solid years to Sean. I hadn't seen Julian, my first son (by ex-wife Cynthia), grow up at all. And now there's a 17-year-old man on the phone talking about motorbikes." — Newsweek, 1980
"Yoko became the breadwinner, taking care of the bankers and deals. And I became the housewife. It was like one of those reversal comedies! I'd say (mincingly), 'Well, how was it at the office today, dear? Do you want a cocktail? I didn't get your slippers and your shirts aren't back from the laundry.' To all housewives, I say I now understand what you're screaming about." — Newsweek, 1980
On faith:
"I believe Jesus was right, Buddha was right, and all of those people like that are right. They're all saying the same thing — and I believe it. I believe what Jesus actually said — the basic things he laid down about love and goodness — and not what people say he said." — Look, 1966
"I don't believe in magic ... I don't believe in Jesus ... I don't believe in Buddha ... I don't believe in Elvis ... I don't believe in Beatles." — God, 1970
"Imagine there's no heaven/ It's easy if you try/ No hell below us/ Above us only sky/ Imagine all the people/ Living for today." — Imagine, 1971