John Lennon

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.

I’d never met a woman I considered as intelligent as me. That sounds bigheaded, but every woman I met was either a dolly-chick, or a sort of screwed-up intellectual chick. And of course, in the field I was in, I didn’t meet many intellectual people anyway. I always had this dream of meeting an artist, an artist girl who would be like me. And I thought it was a myth, but then I met Yoko and that was it.

The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort? Why do we have these accessories to normal living to live? I mean, is there something wrong with society that’s making us so pressurized, that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it?

Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.

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

The more I see the less I know for sure.

I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I’ll die like a poet.

Jazz music can relax, soothe and uplift the mind when you absorb it.

So What or Kind of Blue were done in that era, the right hour, the right day. It’s over; it’s on the record.

I simply want to reach a level where I will never cease to make progress…so that, even on the bad evenings, I may never be bad enough to despair.

My style is to just play. The more “live” you capture your music-the more unthought-out-the more magical it is.

To this day, I don’t like people walking on stage not looking good. You have to look good. If you feel special about yourself then you’re going to play special.

Django Reinhardt was fantastic. he must have been playing all the time to be that good.

Spontaneously composed music is a counterpoint that has its own rules based on a natural order and intuitive logic.

If a Jazz musician plays someone else’s song, he has a responsibility to make a distinct and original statement.

People love us when we play what we want to play but we’re starving.

When it comes to music, don’t lie to yourself; just tell yourself the truth.

What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man.

Play the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you play.

Keep on listening and tapping your feet.

Music always turns into music. As soon as I play a key, push a key down, there’s no theory any more. When I go and I hear a sound on the keyboard, all theories go out the window.