Song Quotes by John Lennon

Music is everybody's possession.

— John Lennon

Without James Dean, the Beatles would have never existed.

— John Lennon

Without Jimmy Dean, the Beatles never would have existed.

— John Lennon

I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me.

— John Lennon

Remember to let her into your heart.

— John Lennon

The magic of the music seems to light the way.

— John Lennon

People think the Beatles know what's going on. We don't. We're just doing it.

— John Lennon

If The Beatles or the 60's had a message, it was 'Learn to swim. And once you've learned - swim!

— John Lennon

When I was singing about 'All You Need Is Love' I was talking about something I hadn't experienced.

— John Lennon

I didn't leave the Beatles. The Beatles have left the Beatles, but no one wants to be the one to say the…

— John Lennon

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

— John Lennon

Without Jimmy (James) Dean the Beatles would never have existed.

— John Lennon

I thought of nothing else but rock 'n' roll; apart from sex and food and money--but that's all the same thing, really.

— John Lennon

I must say the more interesting songs to me were the black ones because they were more simple.

— John Lennon

Everything I've ever done is out. I don't have boxes of unreleased stuff. There's nothing in the files. I can never keep…

— John Lennon

We were all on this ship in the sixties, our generation, a ship going to discover the New World. And the Beatles…

— John Lennon

One has to completely humiliate oneself to be what the Beatles were . . . . It happened bit by bit, until…

— John Lennon

I started being me about the songs, not writing objectively, but subjectively. I think it was Dylan who helped me realize that…

— John Lennon

When Yoko [Ono] and I got married, we got terrible racialist letters - you know, warning me that she would slit my…

— John Lennon

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…

— John Lennon

I only ever asked two people to work with me as a partner. One was Paul McCartney and the other Yoko Ono.…

— John Lennon

A more interesting question is not 'Why did they break up?' but 'Would they have gotten back together?' ... There's always a…

— John Lennon

I still don't know how to express the really delicate personal stuff. People think that Plastic Ono is very personal, but there…

— John Lennon

They want to hold onto something they never had in the first place. Anybody who claims to have some interest in me…

— John Lennon

From our earliest days in Liverpool, George and I on the one hand and Paul on the other had different musical tastes.…

— John Lennon

There were very few real folk singers you know, though I liked Dominic Behan a bit and there was some good stuff…

— John Lennon

The writing of the Beatles, or John and Paul's contribution to the Beatles in the late sixties - had a kind of…

— John Lennon

The lyrics stand today (1980). They're still my feeling about politics. I want to see the plan. I want to know what…

— John Lennon

The whole thing died in my mind long before the rumpus started. We used to believe the Beatles myth just as much…

— John Lennon

I mean we [The Beatles] had to go through humiliation upon humiliation with the middle classes and showbiz and Lord Mayors and…

— John Lennon

Songwriting is about getting the demon out of me. It's like being possessed. You try to go to sleep, but the song…

— John Lennon

The Beatles were just a band that made it very, very big, that's all.

— John Lennon

If there hadn't been an Elvis, there wouldn't have been the Beatles.

— John Lennon

Meanings of all songs come after they are recorded. Someone else has to interpret them

— John Lennon

Barney Kessel is incredible. He's just amazing . . . . Nobody can play guitar like that

— John Lennon

Songwriting is about getting the demon out of me. It's like being possessed.

— John Lennon

Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it.

— John Lennon

Why should The Beatles give more? Didn't they give everything on God's earth for ten years? Didn't they give themselves?

— John Lennon

If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry'.

— John Lennon

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