John Lennon

For a long time I wasn’t listening to music, to the rock and roll stuff on the radio, because it would cause me to get sweaty–it would bring back memories I didn’t want to know about, or I would get that feeling that I’m not alive ’cause I’m not making it. And if it was good, I hated it ’cause I wasn’t doing it. And if it was bad, I was furious ’cause I could’ve done it better…

God is a concept by which we measure our pain.

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

I realized that kids everywhere go for the same stuff; and seeing as we’d done it in England, there’s no reason why we couldn’t do it in America too.

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?

Lots of people who complained about us receiving the MBE received theirs for heroism in the war –for killing people. We received ours for entertaining other people. I’d say we deserve ours more.

A Jazz musician is supposed to find his voice, find his niche and do his thing.

I like the music. I love it and live it in fact, but for me the business part just plain stinks.

I am a devout musician.

That’s where I heard feedback first – from Les Paul. Also vibratos – even before B.B. King, you know. I’ve traced a hell of a lot of rock and roll, little riffs and things, back to Les Paul – it’s all there. I mean, he’s the father of it all: multi-tracking and everything else. If it hadn’t been for him, there wouldn’t have been anything really.

Everybody that you could name would join in our audiences from, Laguardia on down. Everybody came. Everybody came to the Cotton Club.

Jazz to me is a living music. It’s a music that since its beginning has expressed the feelings, the dreams, hopes, of the people.

There is two kinds of music, the good and the bad. I play the good kind.

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

If you follow your passions, you’ll never work a day in your life.

I’m meant to be an artist who can stand on my own. That’s my place; that’s what I’m supposed to do.

I find my inspiration in myself.

Music comes from the moment, it is spontaneous, it exists at the time it is created.

I compose my pieces with a formula that I created myself.

It’s not the style that motivates me, as much as an attitude of openness that I have when I go into a project.

In Europe, they like everything you do. The mistakes and everything. That’s a little bit too much.