Top 60 Lennon Quotes

I want to make an impact on people. Like John Lennon writing ‘Imagine,’ a song that changes an entire generation of people.

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.’

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.

One of my initial memories of being taken over by music was watching Paul McCartney on TV play a tribute to John Lennon. He was playing piano by himself and singing ‘Imagine,’ and I remember feeling an anxiety and shortness of breath.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.’

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

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

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.

Let’s say honorary favorite New Yorker is John Lennon, and favorite real New Yorker is Biggie, because he’s the best.

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.

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 just shot John Lennon.

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.

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.

It would be great to have Bach in one corner, Bessie Smith in another, John Lennon in another. That’s what I’d ideally like. A studio of the dead.

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.

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

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.

We don’t sign an artist to fill a void, ever. I’ll never find a Taylor Swift. You can’t find a new Madonna, you cannot find a Prince, a Bob Marley, a John Lennon. You won’t find another Kanye West. We simply deal with people as they walk in, and we say we either love them or we don’t.

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 loved John Lennon, by the way.

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

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

I truly miss the genius of the music of John Lennon, as I’m sure everybody does.

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.

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.

Lennon was not very fond of me. Lennon didn’t like to be around somebody else who was likely to be the center of attention and didn’t like being on deck with somebody who was intellectually as hot as he was.

Neil Lennon was a great manager; he really got your team in the mood and wanting to play for him.

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.

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.

I must have been six or seven – standing in front of a full-length mirror with a yardstick, pretending to be John Lennon. In my head, I was always going to be a singer, and The Beatles were probably the first musicians that had a major impact.

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.

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

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

John Lennon and Ringo Starr liked my songs. I used to write songs and they heard me sing songs on stage in London.

If one could have a wish, or an alternative life, I would’ve liked to have been John Lennon.

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

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.

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.

You ready? I have gold teeth, I have braids, I’m wearing Rick Owens moon boots, I have rips in my denim, a biker vest, I love artsy girls, my favourite artists are Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon. I’m obsessed with being different.

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 am not John Lennon; I never will be!

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 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.

Paul McCartney and John Lennon would often write a song a day, so I have the same workmanlike philosophy.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.