Famous Quotes & Sayings

John Lennon

The whole Beatle thing was just beyond comprehension. When 'Help' came out, I was actually crying out for help. Most people think it's just a fast rock 'n roll song. I didn't realize it at the time; I just wrote the song because I was commissioned to write it for the movie. But later, I knew I really was crying out for help.

John Lennon

I don't know if I want to record together again. I go off and on it... In the old days, when we needed an album, Paul and I got together and produced enough songs for it. Nowadays, there's three of us writing prolifically and trying to fit it all into one album.

John Lennon

Music's all right John, but you'll never make a living out of it.

John Lennon

Before Cliff (Richard) and The Shadows, there had been nothing worth listening to in British music.

John Lennon

I love commercial music! I can dissect it and criticize it with any critic in the business. But without any thought, I just enjoy it. It's folk music. That's what I'm doing, folk music. I'm not intellectualizing it . . . and making it into a phoney art form. I'm just doing the music I enjoy.

John Lennon

In Paris in 1964 was the first time I ever heard Dylan at all. Paul got the record (The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan) from a French DJ. For three weeks in Paris we didn't stop playing it. We all went potty about Dylan.

John Lennon

I started being me about the songs, not writing objectively, but subjectively. I think it was Dylan who helped me realize that - not by any discussion or anything, but by hearing his work.

John Lennon

Without Jimmy Dean, the Beatles never would have existed.

John Lennon

We were cowards when we sacked him.

John Lennon

And Paul hits this chord and I turn to him and say, 'That's it! Do that again!' In those days, we really used to absolutely write like that - both playing into each other's noses.

John Lennon

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

John Lennon

We reckoned we could make it because there were four of us. None at us would've made it alone, because Paul wasn't quite strong enough, I didn't have enough girl-appeal, George was too quiet, and Ringo was the drummer. But we thought that everyone would be able to dig at least one of us, and that's how it turned out.

John Lennon

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

John Lennon

'Oh! Darling' was a great one of Paul's that he didn't sing too well. I always thought I could have done it better-it was more my style than his. He wrote it, so what the hell, he's going to sing it.

John Lennon

I don't mind people putting us down, because if everybody really liked us, it would be a bore. You've got to have people putting you down. It doesn't give any edge to it if everybody just falls flat on their face saying, 'You're great.' We enjoy some of the criticisms as well, they're quite funny; some of the clever criticisms, not the ones that don't know anything, but some of the clever ones are quite fun.

John Lennon

The thing is, in America, it just seemed ridiculous - I mean, the idea of having a hit record over there, ... It was just something you could never do.

John Lennon

The world went mad and used us as an excuse.

John Lennon

We were always going to dump him when we found a decent drummer.

John Lennon

I am like a chameleon, influenced by whatever's going on. If Elvis can do it, I can do it. If the Everly Brothers can do it, me and Paul can. Same with Dylan.

John Lennon

There are only a few notes. Just variations on a theme.

John Lennon

The more real you get, the more unreal everything else is.

John Lennon

It was like being in the eye of a hurricane. You'd wake up in a concert and think, Wow, how did I get here?

John Lennon

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

John Lee Hooker

I been doing the same things as in my younger days, when I was coming up, and now here I am, an old man, up there in the charts. And I say, well, what happened? Have they just thought up the real John Lee Hooker, is that it? And I think, well, I won't tell nobody else! I can't help but wonder what happened.

Jimmy Cliff

I've done a lot of things to become what I've become, out to create and establish a musical form and I call it movie.

Elvis Presley

Any audience, as a rule, goes for a fast number.

Elvis Presley

Music should be something that makes you gotta move, inside or outside.

Elvis Presley

The image is one thing and the human being is another. It's very hard to live up to an image, put it that way.

Elvis Presley

I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to.

Elvis Presley

In this day and time you can't even get sick; you are strung-out! Well by God, I'll tell you something, friend: I have never been strung-out in my life, except on music!

Elliott Carter

My musical life started with hearing and being fascinated by contemporary music.

Josh Hartnett

My musical tastes go from Zeppelin to Bob Dylan to Kanye West and Lil' Wayne. Anything modern and progressive.

Joshua Bell

I grew up in a musical family, but nobody was a professional musician.