JOHN LENNON QUOTES III

British singer/songwriter (1940-1980)

John Lennon

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


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

JOHN LENNON

A Hard Day's Night


Think peace, live peace, and breathe peace and you'll get it as soon as you like. Okay?

JOHN LENNON

statement to the press, July 1969


The idea of beetles came into my head. I decided to spell it BEATles to make it look like beat music, just a joke.

JOHN LENNON

Life Magazine, September 13, 1968

Tags: The Beatles


I learned lots of dirty jokes very young. There was this girl who told me them. The gang I led went in for shoplifting and pulling girls' knickers down. Other boys' parents hated me.

JOHN LENNON

Life Magazine, September 13, 1968


Everything is as important as everything else.

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 thing you can't hide is when you're crippled inside.

JOHN LENNON

"Crippled Inside"


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


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

JOHN LENNON

"Mother"


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


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"


Leave a space and something will fill it.

JOHN LENNON

All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono


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


Christ, you know it ain't easy
You know how hard it can be.
The way things are going,
they're going to crucify me.

JOHN LENNON

"Ballad of John and Yoko"


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


I really thought that love would save us all.

JOHN LENNON

attributed, The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 10, 1980

Tags: love


What's Bagism? It's like... a tag for what we all do, we're all in a bag ya know, and we realised that we came from two bags, I was in this pop bag going round and round in my little clique, and she was in her little avant-garde clique going round and round, and you're in your little tele clique and they're in their...ya know? and we all sort of come out and look at each other every now and then, but we don't communicate. And we all intellectualize about how there is no barrier between art, music, poetry... but we're still all "I'm a rock and roller, he's a poet" ... so we just came up with the word so you would ask us what bagism is, and we'd say "WE'RE ALL IN A BAG BABY!"

JOHN LENNON

interview, The David Frost Show, June 14, 1969


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


All we are saying is give peace a chance!

JOHN LENNON

"Give Peace a Chance"

Tags: peace