John Lennon

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

I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love.

I’m not claiming divinity. I’ve never claimed purity of soul. I’ve never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can… But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.

Part of me suspects that I’m a loser, and the other part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.

We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first, rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity.

Nothing is real.

If I’m not saying it in four choruses or less, then I’m not saying it.

Black and white players hadn’t appeared together in public before Teddy Wilson and I began working with B.G.

The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.

I never had much interest in the piano until I realized that every time I played, a girl would appear on the piano bench to my left and another to my right.

Dizzy used to tell me I’m playing too hard. He’d say to not give everything. Miles told me that too.

Perhaps it is a peculiarity of mine that despite the fact that I am a professional performer, it is true that I have always preferred playing without an audience.

I write songs about real things… The subject dictates the mood and it goes from there, really.

I look for a deep, gutty feelin’ in a guitar tone. I don’t use picks. People ask, “How you get that?” It’s just there. There’s a lot of people try to play real fast chords-da da da da da-that ain’t the hard, solid blues. It’s synthetic. It has not feeling to it. You sit down and play some funky, funky guitar. Take your time! Don’t rush it. Just let it come flowing through you. I can play guitar so funky, it’ll bring teardrops to your eyes.

Silence is what makes music sexy. I just move blocks of silence around. The notes are an afterthought.

Playing gives me as much good feeling now as it did when I was a bitty kid.

You could go out and eat and come back and the note would still be playing.

I went through a lot of mental pains and anguish about choosing between jazz and classical. I realized that where I functioned was where I should be, and where I functioned was in jazz, so that was it.

I had spent many years pursuing excellence, because that is what classical music is all about… Now it was dedicated to freedom, and that was far more important.

Music opens up minds to dream great dreams about where you can go and what you can do.

I wanted to do the music, but not at the expense of being happy.