John Lennon

Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.

If The Beatles or the 60’s had a message, it was ‘Learn to swim. And once you’ve learned – swim!’

I thought of nothing else but rock ‘n’ roll; apart from sex and food and money–but that’s all the same thing, really.

We’ve got this gift of love, but 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 watering it. You’ve got to really look after it and nurture it.

Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? All the rest of you, if you

You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.

Always remember your kid’s name. Always remember where you put your kid. Don’t let your kid drive until their feet can reach the pedals. Use the right size diapers … for yourself. And, when in doubt, make funny faces.

I pay my mama’s bills, I ain’t got no time to chill.

My most important title is “mom-in-chief”. My daughters are still the heart of my heart and the centre of my world.

I have real good parents. They poor. They have regular, poor jobs and what not. They real good people and what not; I was just raised in a bad society.

I had grown up without a father and that is why it was so important to me that my children would never be in need of anything.

I learned in those eight years is that home is where you make it, and we were in the White House for eight years, but it wasn’t the house. It was us in it. It was our value and our love for each other.

Now that the baby is coming, I will do a lot more balancing. I’m going to be a real mommy.

The best thing about having a sister was that I always had a friend.

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

The times when Barack and I are at our most relaxed are when we invite some friends over who we have known forever. And you put a little music on top of that? Some good food? It renews your spirit to get back in the game.

I know what it’s like to be married and to live in a house with a garden, but it’s not something I’m striving for at the moment.

We let Willow cut her hair. When you have a little girl, it’s like, how can you teach her that your in control of her body? If I teach her that I’m in charge of whether or not she can touch her hair, she’s going to replace me with some other man when she goes out into the world. She can’t cut my hair, but that’s her hair. She has got to have command over her body. So when she goes out into the world, she goes out with command that it’s hers. She is used to making those decisions herself. We try to keep giving them those decisions until they can hold the full weight of their lives.

You leave home to seek your fortune and when you get it, you go home and share it with your family.

My father was a successful real estate developer, and he was a very tough man but a good man. My father would always praise me. He always thought I was the smartest person.

She does have a very nice figure… If [Ivanka] weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.