John Lennon Quotes

“Music is everybody's business. It's only the publishers who think people own it”
― John Lennon

“Love is like a precious plant. You can't just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it's going to get on by itself. You've got to keep on watering it. You've got to really look after it and nurture it.”
― John Lennon

“We stood there for a minute or two, with John swaying gently against my arm. 'I'm feeling better,' he announced. Then he looked up at the stars. 'Wow..' he intoned. 'Look at that! Isn't that amazing?".
I followed his gaze. The stars did look good but they didn't look that good. It was very unlike John to be over the top in that way. I stared at him. He was wired-pin-sharp and quivering, resonating away like a human tuning fork.
No sooner had John uttered his immortal words about the stars than George and Paul came bursting out on the roof. They had come tearing up from the studio as soon as they found out where we were.
They knew why John was feeling unwell. Maybe everyone else did, too - everyone except for father-figure George Martin here!
It was very simple. John was tripping on LSD. He had taken it by mistake, they said - he had meant to take an amphetamine tablet. That hardly made any difference, frankly; the fact was that John was only too likely to imagine he could fly, and launch himself off the low parapet that ran around the roof. They had been absolutely terrified that he might do so.
I spoke to Paul about this night many years later, and he confirmed that he and George had been shaken rigid when they found out we were up on the roof. They knew John was having a what you might call a bad trip. John didn't go back to Weybridge that night; Paul took him home to his place, in nearby Cavendish Road. They were intensely close, remember, and Paul would do almost anything for John. So, once they were safe inside, Paul took a tablet of LSD for the first time, 'So I could get with John' as he put it- be with him in his misery and fear.

What about that for friendship?”
― George Martin, With A Little Help From My Friends: The Making of Sgt. Pepper

“One thing I can tell you is you have to be free. Come together, right now, over me.”
― John Lennon

“spring passes
and one remembers one's innocence
summer passes
and one remembers one's exuberance
autumn passes
and one remembers one's reverence
winter passes
and one remembers one's perseverance
there is a season that never passes and that is the season of glass

-- Season of Glass, 1981”
― Yoko Ono

“Before John could even get through the first verse, who bursts through the door and jumps right into the fray, lips a'kissin' and hips a'wigglin'? That's right, kids, everbody's favorite zombie hunter. Mick Jagger strode right up to John, raised his arms to the sky, and said, 'O zombie Lennon! It ends here.”
― Alan Goldsher, Paul Is Undead: The British Zombie Invasion

“Captain Midlands: "I met the real you once."
John (Lennon) the Skrull: "You're meeting the real me now."
Captain Midlands: "I told him to get his bleedin' hair cut.”
― Paul Cornell, X-Men: Wisdom - Rudiments of Wisdom

“For the next 16 hours, fueled by coffee and amphetamines, I wrestled with John Lennon's scrawls and codes and symbols. As I transcribed his words, I said them out loud like an incantation, and I began to feel Lennon's energy flowing through me.”
― Robert Rosen, Nowhere Man: Los últimos días de John Lennon

“Deed of the virtuous, dead and buried
World under curfew, solitary
My love never peaked now my soul is weak
Leaving reality dimmed and blurry

Imagination wild, Johnny Lennon
Speaking up my mind, taste my venom
Blinded by the lies, eyes in lemon
Paradise I will find, Day of Judgement”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Letter 19

“If you can write like Matthew, Mark, Luke or John Lennon then I will read it”
― Kevin Kolenda

“La vida es aquello que ta sucediendo mientras te empeñas en hacer otros planes.”
― John Lennon

“La vida es aquello que te va sucediendo mientras te empeñas en hacer otros planes.”
― John Lennon

“Fans of John Lennon refuse to mention his killer's name. It's smart to starve these spree shooters of the oxygen of infamy they crave.”
― Stewart Stafford

“The death of their manager Brian Epstein was the beginning of the end for The Beatles. While Yoko Ono did try to fill the power vacuum and exacerbate the cracks created by Epstein's loss, she was not solely responsible for The Fab Four's demise. As with every big event, there are many actors, factors and complexities at play and no one simple explanation for everything.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Everybody of my generation has the same memory. We were twelve or thirteen or we were twenty-one, for that matter, and we were going to be veterinarians or we were, like Ringo, going to own a hairdresser’s parlor. We walked into the record store and saw the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. We thought together, 'Life can be other than it has been.”
― Curtis White, Idea of Home

“I grew up with John Lennon at my side, like a big brother.”
― Viv Albertine, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys

“For those of us who identify with the movements of the sixties this period represents not so much a decade as a state of consciousness, characterized by the transpersonal expansion, the questioning of authority, a sense of empowerment, and the experience of sensuous beauty and community. This state of consciousness reached well into the seventies. In fact, one could say that the sixties came to an end only in December 1980 with the shot that killed John Lennon.”
― Fritjof Capra, Uncommon Wisdom : Conversations With Remarkable People

“Just because everybody loves The Beatles doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with The Beatles.”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo

“When you realize you have lost a battle. Learn to live with it remember. Everything is going to be okay in the end. If it's not then it's not THE END.”
― Awais Zafar

“In This Darkness by Stewart Stafford

A limo drove through mansion gates,
Rock star John saw her wait again,
Hysterically begging for autographs,
The gates closed behind the limo.

John said stop, and exited the car,
"I'll sign it for you tomorrow, 100%,"
"No," she said, "sign tonight... now,"
He strode towards his home gates.

He rummaged in his coat pockets,
Ripping a cigarette packet to sign,
He found a tiny pencil in his pants,
Trailing breath vapour in the night.

"I can't see you in this darkness,"
A chilling laugh from the fan's side,
Three muzzle flashes, John died,
Contorted on a bloody driveway.

© Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“John Lennon once claimed that his band, The Beatles were more popular than Jesus. Lennon’s life paralleled Christ’s - both came from nothing, became figureheads of worldwide cults and changed the world. They also had premature, painful and undeserved deaths at the hands of others who envied and craved their abilities, influence and popularity. In the late Sixties, Lennon even seemed to adopt a Christ-like image with his long hair, beard and the various robes he started wearing, perhaps as a sly visual parody of his previous remarks.”
― Stewart Stafford

“I Am The Cobra by Stewart Stafford

A prisoner in his distant brain,
Drowning man courts stardom,
Became an ass in assassination,
A zilch begetting zilch ad infinitum.

Helicopter Christian and Satanist,
Cauliflower man, now a cabbage,
In judgement, cutting off phonies,
Blind to himself in lost daydreams.

In the cobra's deadly surprise strike,
The attacker's venom splashed back,
Bars in his head now physical restraints,
A malingering, slow death from snakebite.

© Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“You’ve got your answer then, haven’t you?'
Lydia nods. She has. She knew it all along. But sometimes it takes an artificially intelligent simulation of a long dead Beatle to put things in perspective.”
― Eddie Robson, Drunk on All Your Strange New Words

“Chaos Cocktail by Stewart Stafford

Herky-jerky's hanky-panky,
Wakey-wakey, eggs n' bakey!
Cosmic Mercury's retrograde trick,
Nilsson's Brandy Alexander kick.

John heard Bermuda's jingle-jangle,
Storm surge in an Exorcist Triangle!
Sea shanties upending Behan's hive,
All stout hornets jigged and jived.

Yoko's "Oh, no!" on firmer ground,
Her ageing mariner didn't drown,
Lonely Ringo plays bingo bongo,
Paul, mugged down near the Congo.

© 2024, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“The music never dies as we do.”
― Anthony t hincks

“You are the music that plays in heaven.”
― Anthony t hincks

“I associate my vagitus with the sound of your music which continues to ring loud and clear worldwide. The uncommon lyrics you planed down, the charts, the melody, the conviction, the intricacies of loud art, the energy of voluble truth and your profound philosophy all breathe and spell out (next to the silhouette of spiritual balances) your enduring legacies.”
― Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu

“I associate my vagitus with the sound of your music, John Lennon, which continues to ring loud and clear worldwide. The uncommon lyrics you planed down, the charts, the melody, the conviction, the intricacies of loud art, the energy of voluble truth and your profound philosophy all breathe and spell out (next to the silhouette of spiritual balances) your enduring legacies.”
― Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu

“The Roller Trip by Stewart Stafford

A psychedelic Rolls-Royce ride,
Lennons and pals giggle inside,
Chauffeur whistles as secrets slip,
Hourglass liquid lets sentience rip.

Supplied narcotics set minds ablaze,
Looping the loop in a magenta haze:
"Ladies & Germs, to a scene obscene!
Set sail to ecstasy we've never seen!"

Wheels whirled wild in a swirling blur,
Yokels mouth breathe where cows concur,
Red light flare, fans storm captive glass,
Mary Jane and Lucy on laughing gas.

Below the speed limit, warp speed fast,
Canary oil slides on a ghost ship's mast,
Paisley spermatozoa in jigging fright,
Tumbling back to earth as day flipped night.

© 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Reimagine 2025 by Stewart Stafford

Imagine no Viagra,
Put yourself at ease,
Flags at half-mast, limp,
No one worthy to please.

Imagine no more Temu,
It’s costly if you try,
No tacky deals to tempt us,
Prices rocketing sky-high.

Imagine all the suckers,
Chasing Black Friday deals —
Whoa.

You don’t pay for illegal streaming,
First, it works and then it’s gone,
I hope someday Hollywood joins us,
And binge-watchers will live as one.

Imagine all your neighbours,
Squatters on your Wi-Fi?
Why?

Imagine no porch pirates,
I wonder if Jeff Bezos can?
No toilet paper gold rush,
A calmer state of Man.

You may say we're screen-addicted,
Babies swiping, having "fun",
Messiahs made of viral nonsense,
Pull the plug and we are done!

© 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford