John Lennon

My role in society, or any artist or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.

You have to be a bastard to make it, and that’s a fact. And the Beatles are the biggest bastards on earth.

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

I resent performing for frisking idiots who don’t know anything.

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.

And so this is Xmas for black and for white, for yellow and red, let’s stop all the fight.

Three months. I was playing the organ for three months. It was a challenge for me in the beginning.

All this is saying is, OK I see now, the ‘hood does not quite want Shirley Bassey yet, so let me still give them this. Crack Music was made after Diamonds. After black people were like, ‘I don’t know about this one.’ It was like me reaching too high for the cookie jar.

Just allow your feelings to go with the music and you’ll find yourself carried along by it fairly quickly.

The hippest thing you can do is not play at all. Just listen.

I try to teach by example and not force ideas on a young musician. We’re here to be part of a process of exchange.

What I look for in concert is a connection with the audience.

Music gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and charm and gaiety to life.

It’s not all smoke and mirrors. Some of it comes from books.

May your heart always be joyful. May your song always be sung.

I’ve always liked the Freddie King/B. B. King rich tone, and at the same time, I like the manic Buddy Guy/Otis Rush Strat tone. So I’m always caught in the middle of the Gibson and Fender sounds. If I’m playing my black [Fender] Strat, and I’m in the middle of a blues, I kind of wish I was playing a [Gibson] Les Paul. Then again, if I was playing a Les Paul, the sound would be great, but I’d be saying, “Man, I wish I had the Stratocaster neck!”

Jazz is about being in the moment.

A drummer has to be kind-hearted.

I heard someone say ‘What’s that kid doing here? Call your piano player and let’s get started.’

Music is interior decoration.

Django was the definitive genius on the guitar, and the depth of his gift was so spectacular.