Top 95 Lennon Quotes

I love Soul, R+B, Electronic, and good pop. Really, the only thing I don’t listen to is country and heavy metal. I love Marvin Gaye, John Legend, Al Green, Fat Freddys Drop, Sade, Grace Jones, Bazoo Bijou, Prince, John Lennon, London Grammar, Daft Punk, Dr John, Dusty Springfield, Peggy Lee, Gotye, and on it goes.

Shortly after I finished chemo, but during my 12 weeks of radiation, Lennon and I returned to work on the third season of the show we write, produce and star in, ‘Playing House.’

I spent many years trying to write a lot like Ben Folds or John Lennon or Rivers Cuomo. I think that’s healthy when you’re learning to write and seeing how chords fit together and how songs take shape.

I feel that I see John Lennon now as not a celebrity. I did then. I saw him as a cardboard cutout on an album cover.

I really didn’t mean to hurt anybody. I liked John Lennon.

It’s bad enough being conned into singing an anti-war message by John Lennon when you think you’re just wishing everyone a merry Christmas.

There were people who went for serious mind enhancement, like Jimi Hendrix or John Lennon, although I didn’t really need to do that. I was blessed with an incredibly fertile imagination.

I didn’t realise that I was so accomplished on the guitar until someone said to me, ‘How do you do that?’ That someone was John Lennon. He asked me to teach him my technique.

As a songwriter, I was influenced by David Bowie – a great writer. A class above everybody in so many ways. Lennon and McCartney, of course. Class stuff. David Cousins was my favorite lyricist.

If you look at someone like Joe Strummer or John Lennon, when you heard their music you knew that they wrote it and they cared about it.

I loved John Lennon, by the way.

When your hair is rising, that’s when you know it’s a good song – that’s happened to me with some artists and some songs, John Lennon songs or when Nina Simone sings. It’s great to make those moments yourself.

I just shot John Lennon.

‘Gilmore Girls’ was a passion of mine, to the point where Lennon actually can’t watch it because if she does, then we might be fully ripping them off.

I’ve no problem with Neil Lennon. I’m thrilled for him to be interested in me. He tried to sign me for Bolton but football is football.

Lennon was right. And we are bigger than Jesus. We will be as big as the Beatles, if not bigger.

Where John Lennon and Yoko Ono holed up for a week in the Presidential Suite at the Hilton Amsterdam for their ‘Bed-in for Peace’ on March 25, 1969, Firouzeh and I are compelled to do our ‘Bed-in against Fracking’ which has been thrust upon us all undemocratically.

What if Picasso had gone to the Moon? Or Andy Warhol or Michael Jackson or John Lennon? What about Coco Chanel? These are all artists that I adore.

We hope that by sharing my experience – our experience, Lennon and I – that somebody who is going through this process or helping their loved one through it might feel less alone, and might even have some better information for their cancer care.

I get inspired when I look at Tom Lennon, who did ‘Reno 911!’ for six seasons while writing huge movies and directing and also doing other pilots; he did that FX pilot, the ‘Star Trek‘ thing.

I keep mementos from everything I’ve done. I’ve got my cab driver‘s license from ‘Happiness.’ I’ve got a pair of glasses and a belt buckle from playing John Lennon. I’ve got a pair of sunglasses from playing Andy Warhol… It’s all in a box in the garage.

My husband John Lennon was a very special man. A man of humble origin, he brought light and hope to the whole world with his words and music.

I wanted to have the adoration of John Lennon but have the anonymity of Ringo Starr. I didn’t want to be a frontman. I just wanted to be back there and still be a rock and roll star at the same time.

Lennon has an amazing ability to think before she speaks. She doesn’t have to constantly be talking. She just thinks, and when she speaks, it’s thoughtful. She’s very calm. I’m trying to learn that from her.

I made records purely for fun – songs that made you feel good. I left the message songs to people like John Lennon.

The Beatles never sounded intimidated by their idols. They never interpreted old rock; they simply played it as well and as joyfully as they knew how. On ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll,’ John Lennon does nothing but interpret old rock.

Lennon and McCartney have the best catalogue of songs ever produced. It will never be surpassed.

John Lennon was very irreverent and very intelligent.

Over four or five years, I did six albums with three people: John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, and Patti Smith. I felt that if I could care as much about their music as they did, I could be useful to them. I really cared about their music and their lives.

People have made a living deconstructing Lennon and The Beatles songs because of their compositional sophistication. But what’s so exciting about John is that he never had any of that training on musical theory; something just spoke to him, and he just knew what sounded right.

I am not John Lennon; I never will be!

To be quite honest, John Lennon had questionable politics. There was a flip side. He was all peace and love, but he was a very violent character.

I was 11 years old when the Beatles broke up. I was a Lennon fanatic – I mean, I loved Paul too, but Lennon was the guy – and there was always this dream of the Beatles getting back together; there was always this hope.

I like the Beatles. They’re at the core of my musicality. And John Lennon’s my spiritual father.

At the ‘L.A. Times,’ I always wanted to write about artists I thought were meaningful. So I interviewed Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Eminem, White Stripes. And I could understand how almost everybody I interviewed had a sense of artistry.

When I heard The Beatles, that was my turning point. They were like my mentors. You know, the funny thing about that, when I heard ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand,’ at first I said these guys are like a flash in the pan. But the second album, I had to take all that back. John Lennon – one of the greatest writers in the world.

John Lennon was definitely my favorite Beatle, hands down.

I was still 15 when I met John Lennon at a village fete in Woolton, in Liverpool.

I willingly took John Lennon’s life. What I did was despicable.

We live in a country where John Lennon takes eight bullets, Yoko Ono is walking right beside him and not one hits her. Explain that to me!

Sometimes supporting is difficult because a lot of people go to a gig to see the main act and to have a beer and a chat with their mates, so a lot of the time, even if you were John Lennon, would not listen to you.

To tell the truth, I’d join a band with John Lennon any day, but I couldn’t join a band with Paul McCartney, but it’s nothing personal. It’s just from a musical point of view.

People say the Beatles were John Lennon. What is Paul McCartney? Chopped liver? But everyone has their own favourite members whose creativity they gravitate to. That’s normal.

I think about John Lennon all the time. What would John Lennon do? What would John Lennon say if he got this part? How would he act? I don’t know, but he’s my moral barometer.

Over the years, I’ve had to learn to play. For example, when ‘Lennon’ was on Broadway, I learned my way around the guitar chords because originally we were all going to play the instruments without a band.

I got my first guitar when I was nine because I wanted to be the fifth Beatle, even though they had already broken up and John Lennon died that year.

I grew up in Greenwich Village. Dad was friends with John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

In the ’60s, I used to love rock magazines; I’d cut out pictures of Bob Dylan and John Lennon.

Mr. Lennon would want me free, and I’d like to clear that up.

I think what made John Lennon so exciting as an artist is that, like Dylan and other musicians with a truly important musical legacy, he had several faces, personas that changed over time as he developed.

I wasn’t Lennon, or I wasn’t McCartney. I was me. And the only reason I started to write songs was because I thought, ‘Well, if they can write them, I can write them.’

A lot of the people I’d love to work with, like John Lennon, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, aren’t alive, unfortunately.

Bob Dylan and John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen, these are soul guys. Bruce Springsteen might not sing like Otis Redding, but he sings with white soul. He’s singing and he’s writing songs from the bottom of his gut.

I most want to be remembered for being as great a mother to James and Lennon as my mum was to me and my brother Jamie.

As far as I’m concerned, there won’t be a Beatles reunion as long as John Lennon remains dead.

Men have a lot less to write about, unless you’re somebody like Tom Waits or John Lennon. And the female voice is much more suited to melody. Men have this barky thing – we’re domesticated apes with a microphone.

With every song that I write, I compare it to the Beatles. The thing is, they only got there before me. If I’d been born at the same time as John Lennon, I’d have been up there.

People say, ‘Oh God, you’re name-dropping.’ Well who else comes to your house when you’re John Lennon? These were normal friends to him. McCartney, Jagger, they’d stop in and I’d order pizza or Mick’s favorite beef curry from the local Chinese restaurant. We did normal things.

Yoko Ono never deserved any of the hate she got. Paul McCartney and John Lennon weren’t getting along.

But even with no money you could still go to places like the Scotch Club and, you know, John Lennon might be sitting right over there, but I was certainly not a part of any of that circle. I was truly peripheral.

I realized that it’s all really one, that John Lennon was correct. We utilize the music to bring down the walls of Berlin, to bring up the force of compassion and forgiveness and kindness between Palestines, Hebrews. Bring down the walls here in San Diego, Tijuana, Cuba.

There have never been a lot of female guitarists out there, so most of my influences were male. Acoustically, I followed Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon. Also, John Lennon and Paul McCartney – both incredible acoustic guitar players.

Lennon was very helpful. What he taught me seems completely obvious: he expected people to treat each other well.

The band that made me want to be a musician in the first place was the Beatles. And I think John Lennon used to say something like, ‘We’re just a singing group,’ when he talked about the band. So that’s what I say about Mr. Big – we’re a singing group!

It’s a cliche, but John Lennon is my hero. He was so rebellious, so outspoken and so publicly opinionated, and I’m someone who’s so private. I suppose you admire people who have the qualities you wish you had.

I met John Lennon and he was with his wife in Tokyo. I met him there.

I would trust Lennon not only to babysit my child but to raise them. Literally, that’s who I would want to raise my child.

I wish that I’d written John Lennon’s ‘Imagine.’

No matter what, I can’t sound like John Lennon. But I can do Tom Jones.

My parents were Beatle fans, but my mom was especially a Lennon fan, so I was exposed to him more. I remember her playing ‘Double Fantasy‘ quite often.

For Lennon and me, we grew up with Laverne and Shirley or Lucy and Ethel. For us, those are our inspirations. And I think Amy Poehler and Tina Fey led the way for us to be fearless in the way we kept shoving our message and our comedy voice down people’s throats until they listened.

I loved John Lennon. I read interviews, and whatever he said he liked, I would go and listen to them. That is what I want to do with my fans.

Most of the fans of John Lennon and maybe John and Yoko are younger than me.

What I learned from Lennon was something that did stay with me my whole career, which is to be very straightforward. I actually love talking about taking pictures, and I think that helps everyone.

I don’t really have a lot of hip-hop and all of that, so I have a lot of John Lennon. That’s one that I really like, and The Clash, the Rolling Stones, groups that I think are kind of timeless.

Every time a new rock singer comes out they don’t say, ‘Are you the new John Lennon?’ Every time a new rapper comes out, it’s not, ‘Are you the new Dre?’ I am never sure why this sort of genre, the categorization is so strong. I have not earned the right to be called the young Sinatra, but give me time.

The ones the listeners loved most of all in those early years were the four Lennon girls who became the whole nation‘s little sisters.

I love flying the flag for Irish designers like Joanne Hynes, Simone Rocha, Natalie B Coleman, Lennon Courtney and Helen Steele.

The truth is that when Lennon is Bosephus, she is so mean to me. She can’t smile because the mustache will come off. So in between takes, it’s just scowling. And then when we are on camera, Bosephus treats me like a piece of meat. I’m repulsed and also attracted to it.

It’s definitely a hard pill to swallow; the son of John Lennon and a model having a band together is a cliche. But I think that once people get past that I think there’s been a really warm reception to our music.

Of the many guests we welcomed to the Mickey Mouse Club, my absolute favorites were the Lennon Sisters.

I want to be like Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, and John Lennon… but I want to stay alive.

Dream projects are always a funny thing to label. I guess just more exciting scripts in my inbox. Maybe an exciting script about John Lennon.

John Lennon made wonderful music, which people listen to as music. Nobody around the world is living their life according to the precepts of John Lennon.

After my husband John Lennon passed away, I tried to smile for my health.

There’s benefits of having established artists on the record, Liam Payne on ‘Polaroid’ for example. If you look at that song you have Lennon Stella, who’s an up-and-coming artist, so there’s a balance on there because I still want people to focus on the song just as much as Liam being an amazing superstar.

When people ask me who I’d want to have dinner with, dead or alive, I always say, ‘John Lennon.’ I just feel that he was an artist who was, in his own way, committed to wholeness and authenticity in a not dissimilar way that I am years later.

One of the most cherished photographs in my life is a picture of me with John Lennon – who I met back in 1971 at an anti-war rally.

My heroes were Dylan, John Lennon and Picasso, because they each moved their particular medium forward, and when they got to the point where they were comfortable, they always moved on.

Lennon and McCartney became great songwriters because they were prepared to listen to and learn from all types of music.

When I brought ‘El Topo’ to New York, no one understood the picture. But John Lennon understood. John and Yoko Ono, they presented ‘El Topo’ in the United States; they introduced it.

John Lennon, who was a good friend of mine, he had one of the best senses of humor of any human being. And Keith Richards, fantastic sense of humor. They were smart, sharp. They had their own thoughts on matters.

I copied John Lennon; I copied a bit of David Bowie. It’s such a shame, and I’m so glad that now young girls have so many different role models in all different walks of life.

I got to work with John Lennon. That was pretty cool.

One of the few times I saw my mother cry was when Lennon died, and the other time was when Elvis died.