"When I was 16, all adolescent and awkward and shy, I was dying to be an actor." "I do find it more of an effort not to make an effort. It's more false for me not to. So I might as well make the effort."

"The thing is, we're all the same person. We're just four parts of the one. We're individuals, but we make up together The Mates, which is one person. If one of us, one of the mates leans over one way we all go with him or we pull him back. We all add something different to the whole."

"Me - I'm conservative. I feel I need to check things. I was the last to try pot and LSD and floral clothes. I'm slower than John, the least likely to succeed in class."

"We're not learning to be architects, or painters, or writers. We're learning to be. That's all."

"Do I look dead? I am fit as a fiddle. I am alive and well and concerned about the rumors of my death. But if I were dead, I would be the last to know." (1969)

"I think The Beatles is as famous as I ever want to get."

"The thing is, we're all the same person. We're just four parts of the 'one'. We're individuals, but we make up together The Mates, which is one person. If one of us, one of the mates leans over one way we all go with him or we pull him back. We all add something different to the whole."

"To me, the Beatles will always be just a great little rock 'n' roll band, nothing more, nothing less. The difference bewteen the Beatles and all the other great rock bands is that the Beatles just happened to make it big."

"It's great, it sold, it's the bloody Beatles White Album, shut up!"

"At the beginning I was annoyed with [John], jealous because of Yoko, and afraid about the breakup of a great musical partnership. It took me a year to realize they were in love."

"We're not learning to be architects, or painters, or writers. We're learning to be. That's all."

"I loved the Cavern. It was a clastrophobic hell, but it was a great one."

"It [LSD] opened my eyes. WE only use one-tenth of our brain. Just think of what we could accomplish if we could only tap that hidden part! It would mean a whole new world if the politicians would take LSD. There wouldn't be any more war or poverty or famine." (1967)

"I now realize that taking drugs was like taking an aspirin without a headache."

"No matter how much we split; we're still very linked. We're the only four people who've seen the whole Beatlemania bit from the inside out, so we're tied forever, whatever happens."

"When two great saints meet, it's a humbling experience."

"Personal differences, musical differences, business differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family." (Explaining the breakup of the Beatles)

"I think the French girls are fabulous."

"Someone from the office rang me up and said, 'Look, Paul, you're dead.' And I said, 'Oh, I don't agree with that.'"

"Do I look dead? I'm fit as a fiddle."

"I am alive and well and unconcerned about the rumors concerning my death. But if I were dead, I would be the last to know." (1969)

"The hardest act to follow is yourself."

"We don't need anybody else to tell us what is real; inside each one of us is love, and we know how it feels."

"Us, communists? Why, we can't be communists! We're the world's number one capitalists! Imagine us, communists!"

"We've already bought all our dreams. We want to share that possibility with others. When we were touring, and when the adoration and hysteria were at a peak, if we'd been the shrewd operators we were often made out to be, we might have thought--that's nice! Ah. Click. Let's use this for our own evil ends. But there's no desire in any of our heads to take over the world. That was Hitler. That's what he wanted to do. There is, however, a desire to get power in order to use it for good."

"There's a lot of random in our songs...writing, thinking, letting others think of bits--then bam, you've got the jigsaw puzzle."

"With life and all I've been through, I do have a belief in goodness, a good spirit. I think what people have done with religion is personified good and evil, so good's become God with 'o' out, and evil's become Devil with a 'd' added. That's my theory of religion."

"I'd never really been keen on trumpet, but I liked the guitar because I could play it just after learning a few chords."

"I don't feel like I imagine an idol is supposed to feel."

"The rumor that we were splitting was rubbish, because we're all great friends and we don't want to split up. There's never been any talk of it--except by other people."

"As Beatles, we've gone through millions of superficial changes, which mean nothing and haven't changed us. In posh places you get to like avocado and spinach, so you have them every time, and when you've done all that, you can go back. If you feel like cornflakes for lunch, you ask for them."

From Press Conferences

Press: Are you going to have a leading lady for the film you're about to make?
Paul: We're trying to get the Queen. She sells in England, you know.

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.

Press: Do you ever think of getting a haircut?
Paul: No, love. Do you?

Reporter: What do you think of the campaign in Detroit to stamp out the Beatles?
Paul: We've got a campaign of our own to stamp out Detroit.

Reporter: Do you go to the barber at all?
Paul: Now and then. Do and don't.
Reporter: Just to keep it trimmed?
Paul: Yeah, but sometimes we do it ourselves. The thing is, it's really only our eyebrows that are growing upwards.

Reporter: Paul, how do you feel about reports that say you are conceited?
Paul: They're true!

Reporter: Paul, you look like my son.
Paul: You don't look a bit like my mother.

Reporter: What kind of girl do you like, Paul?
Paul: John's wife.
John: Nobody likes a smart aleck!

Reporter: In a recent article, Time magazine put down pop music and they referred to "Day Tripper as being about a prostitute and "Norwegian Wood" as being about a lesbian. Now I just wanted to know what your intent was when you wrote it and your feeling about the Time magazine criticism of the music that is being written today.
Paul: We were just trying to write songs about prostitutes and lesbians, that's all.