John Lennon

If someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliche that must have been left behind in the 60s, that’s a problem. Peace and love are eternal.

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will live as one.

Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.

I don’t intend to be a performing flea anymore. I was the dreamweaver, but although I’ll be around I don’t intend to be running at 20,000 miles an hour trying to prove myself. I don’t want to die at 40.

If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that’s his problem. Love and peace are eternal.

When you’re drowning, you don’t say ‘I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,’ you just scream.

Jazz is something you have to feel, something you have to live.

Find the best teachers, listen to the finest playing and try to emulate that. Be true to the music.

I think the one thing that I’ve learned is that you cannot predict what’s going to happen. You can’t sit back and try to figure out what people want or leave it up to them to decide. When we all started in this business we would dictate to the audience what was great and they picked up on that based on the fact that we believed that it was great. But that’s all changed. What’s happened in the last ten years or so because is that the technology now means that everyone with a computer can make music and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

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

I’ve said that playing the blues is like having to be black twice. Stevie Ray Vaughan missed on both counts, but I never noticed.

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

Bebop was about change, about evolution. It wasn’t about standing still and being safe.

Jazz is one of the few things you can do in society to express yourself freely and creatively.

Don’t bullshit, just play.

There is a time where you’re beyond yourself, better than your technique, better than your usual ideas.

I don’t try to please when I play. I try to cure.

Have you ever wondered why young people take to music like fish to water? Maybe it’s because music is fun, plain and simple.

Is there a meaning to music? Yes. Can you state in so many words what the meaning is? No.

‘Swing’ is an adjective or a verb, not a noun. All jazz musicians should swing. There is no such thing as a ‘swing band’ in music.

If a literary man puts together two words about music, one of them will be wrong.