"We sort of glimpsed in stages. We never thought about any big things. Acting doesn't interest me anymore. I've done that. I wanted to do a book and i produced one, so that was it."

"What can I tell you about myself which you have not already found out from those who do not lie? I wear glasses.
I was hip in kindergarten. I was different from others. I was different all my life.
I was always a homebody; I think a lot of musicians are--you write and you play in the house. When I was wanting to be a painter when I was younger, or write poetry, it was always in the house. I spent a lot of time reading. Hanging around the home never bothered me. I enjoy it. I love it.
Genius is pain, too. It's just pain.
I'm not a tough guy. I've always had to have a facade of being tough to protect myself from other people's neuroses. But really, I'm a very sensitive, weak guy."

"Ugh, Beatles, how did the name arrive?.....It came in a vision- a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them: 'from this day on you are Beatles'"

"From our earliest days in Liverpool, George and I on the one hand and Paul on the other had different musical tastes. Paul preferred 'pop type' music and we preferred what is now called 'underground'. This may have led to arguments, particularly between Paul and George, but the contrast in tastes, I'm sure, did more good than harm, musically speaking, and contributed to our success."

"I'm never conscious of being a Beatle. Never. I'm just me. I'm not famous."

"Not famous forever? Perhaps a new group will come along and take over from us. It would be so nice to be forgotten."

"What I'd like is to be left completely alone. I'm not a mixer. I've got enough friends to see me through. I just want to be left alone."

"I didn't leave the Beatles. The Beatles have left the Beatles, but no one wants to be the one to say the party's over."

"I'm not the Beatles. I'm me. Paul isn't the Beatles...The Beatles are the Beatles. Separately, they are separate."

"If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace."

"We all have Hitler in us, but we also have love and peace. So why not give peace a chance for once?"

"We're going to send two acorns for peace to every world leader from John and Yoko. Perhaps if they plant them and watch them grow they may get the idea into their heads"

"I really thought Love would save us all."

"We're no better than anyone else. Nobody is. We're all the same. Everyone's the same inside."

"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that. I'm right and will be proved right. We're more popular that Jesus now; I don't know which will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were think and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."

"I feel higher than the Empire State Building!"-John, after Sean was born

"Newspaper people have a habit of putting you in the front pages to sell their papers, and then after they've sold their papers and got big circulation's, they say, 'Look at what we've done for you.'"

"The day the fans desert us, I´ll be wondering how to pay for my whiskey and cokes"

"I am going into an unknown future, but I'm still all here, and still while there's life, there's hope"-John Lennon, Dec 8, 1980

"I'm pleased I made it young. Making it young means that I've now got the rest of my life to do what I really want. It would be terrible to spend your whole life before you finally make it, just to found out it's meaningless. We knew it anyway, but we had to find out for ourselves."

"Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewlery."

"I don't intend to be a performing flea anymore. I was a dream weaver, but although I'll be around I don't intend to be running at 20,000 miles an hour trying to prove myself. I don't want to die at 40."

"You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!"

"Am I crazy or am I a genius? I don't think I'm either."

"If there is such thing as I genius, I am one. And if there isn't, I don't care."

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

"A conspiracy of silence speaks louder than words."

"Once you've gone off and done something, you can't go off pleasin' everybody--so screw it!"

"You're just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You've got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It's all down to you, mate."

"[LSD] went on for years. I must have had a thousand trips. I used to just eat it all the time."

"We never write anything with themes. We just write the same rubbish all the time."

"You can go to church and sing a hymn,Judge me by the color of my skin, You can live a lie until you die, One thing you can't hide is when you're crippled inside."

"You're all geniuses, and you're all beautiful. You don't need anyone to tell you who you are. You are what you are. Get out there and get peace, think peace, and live peace and breathe peace, and you'll get it as soon as you like."

"We were just a band that made it very, very big that's all."

"Well, I suppose a couple of people jumped on the bandwagon, but it really doesn't matter because it promotes the whole idea of us if we're away. There's a few little Beatles still going to remind people of us."

"I'd always felt I'd make it. There were some moments of doubt, but I knew something would eventually happen. When Mimi used to throw away things I'd written or drawn, I used to say 'You'll regret that when I'm famous,' and I meant it."

"I get my spasms of being intellectual. I read about politics, but I don't think I'd vote for anyone--no messages from any phoney politicians are coming through me."

"We thought being offered the MBE was as funny as everybody else thought it was. Why? What for? We all met and agreed it was daft. It all just seemed part of the game we'd agreed to play, like getting the Ivor Novello Awards. We agreed in order to annoy even more people who were already annoyed."

"We couldn't say it, but we didn't really like going back to Liverpool. Being local heroes made us nervous, and when we did shows there, they were always full of people we knew. We felt embarassed in our suits and being very clean, because we were worried that friends might think we'd sold out--which we had, in a way."

"Paul was telling me the other day that he and I used to have rows about who was the leader. I can't remember them, it had stopped mattering by then. I wasn't so determined to be the leader at all costs. If I did argue, it was just out of pride. All the arguments were just trivial, mainly because we were irritable with working so hard. We were just kids."

"I want money just to be rich."

"If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the sixties, that's his problem. Love and peace are eternal." (1980)

"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 people. I'd say we deserve ours more, wouldn't you?"

"I don't mind writing or reading or watching or speaking, but sex is the only physical thing I can be bothered with any more." (1966)

"When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come help me,' you just scream." (1970)

"The Beatles is over, but John, Paul, George, and Ringo...God knows what relationship they'll have in the future. I don't know. I still love those guys! Because they'll always be those people who were that part of my life."

"The difference between the Beatles and Elvis was that Elvis died but his manager lived...with us our manager died and the Beatles lived."

"I don't regret anything I've done, really, except for maybe hurting other people. I wouldn't have missed any of it."

"Nobody controls me, I'm uncontrollable."

"I DO beilieve in Beatles, by the way." (1974)

"Nothing will stop me, and whether I'm here or wherever I may be, I'll always have the same feelings, I'll say what I feel."

"The public doesn't understand the pain of being a freak."

"Rock 'n' Roll will be whatever we make it."

"Thank you. You have a lucky face."

"My defenses were so great. The cocky-rock-and-roll hero who knew all the answers was actually a terrified guy who didn't know how to cry. Simple."

"I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and myself and I hoped we passed the audition."

Reporter: Do you enjoy press conferences?
John: Yes, depending on the intelligence of the questions.

Reporter: There's so much noise at your shows, are you miming your songs?
John: That would be cheating, wouldn't it?

Reporter: Why do you think you're popular all of the sudden?
John: I don't know, it must be the weather.

Reporter: What have you seen that you like best about our country?
John: You.

Reporter: Will you sing something for us?
The Beatles: NO! Reporter: Is there some sort of doubt that you can't sing?
John: No, we need money first.

Reporter: The French have not made up their minds about the Beatles. What do you think of them?
John: Oh, we like the Beatles. They're gear.

Reporter: Where did you get the idea for the haircuts?
John: Where'd you get the idea for yours?

Reporter: But why is it always girls screaming during the concerts?
John: If it was just boys, it would be a bit funny, wouldn't it?

Reporter: How does it feel, putting on the whole world?
John: How does it feel to be put on?

Reporter: Some officials have been saying that your work is un-American. How do you feel about this?
John: Well, that's very observant of them.

Reporter: Can we look forward to any more Beatles movies?
John: Well, there'll be many more, but I'm not sure whether you can look forward to them or not.

Reporter: What execuse have you for collar-length hair?
John: Well, it just grows out of yer head.

Reporter: What was the motivation or inspiration for that ["Eleanor Rigby"]?
John: Two queers.

Reporter: Who do you think does it best, the Beatles' songs?
John: Us.

Reporter: What do you think your music does for these people?
Ringo: Well, it pleases them, I think. It must because they're buying it.
Reporter: Why does it excite them so much?
Paul: We don't know really.
John: If we knew, we'd form another group and be managers.

Reporter: Are you concerned with the rumor going around that the Rolling Stones are now more important than the Beatles?
Paul: It doesn't worry us...
John: 'Cause we manage them.

Reporter: Why do you think you're popular all the sudden?
John: I don't know, it must be the weather.

Reporter: Do you wear wigs?
John: If we do, they must be the only ones with real dandruff!

Reporter: Do you have any advice for teenagers?
John: Don't get pimples.

Press: Are you afraid military service might break up your careers?
John: No. There's no draft in England now. We're going to let you do our fighting for us.

Press: Do you fight amongst yourselves?
John: Only in the mornings.

Press: Did you really use four-letter words on the tourists in the Bahamas?
John: What we actually said was 'gosh'.
Paul: We may have said 'heavens!'
John: Couldn't have said that, Paul. More than four letters.