John Lennon

I always think I should have done it. Presumably, she would have allowed it.

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.

When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system's game. The establishment will irritate you - pull your beard, flick your face - to make you fight. Because once they've got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don't know how to handle is non-violence and humor.

That is one of the main reasons the Beatles ended. I can't speak for George, but I pretty damn well know we got fed up of being sidemen for Paul.

I wasn't going to tell you, but I'm breaking the group up. It feels good. It feels like a divorce.

You can say I said jokingly, 'He didn't quit, I sacked him!'

Yoko is part of me now. We're John and Yoko, we're together.

I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me.

We're not disinterested in politics. It's just that politicians are disinteresting.

Women should be obscene and not heard.

The women are very important too, we can't have a revolution that doesn't involve and liberate women. It's so subtle the way you're taught male superiority.

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.

That kind of fool nobody needs.

The words didn't mean a lot. People draw so many conclusions, and it's ridiculous. I've had tongue in cheek all along — all of them had tongue in cheek. Just because other people see depths of whatever in it… What does it really mean, 'I am the Eggman?' It could have been 'The pudding Basin' for all I care. It's not that serious.

I used to be cruel to my woman. I beat her and kept her from the things that she loved. Man, I was mean, but I'm changing my scene and I'm doing the best that I can.

When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy'. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life.

I've never really been wanted.

My father and mother split and I never saw my father until I was 20, nor did I see much more of my mother.

He [Julian] is in the majority, along with me and everyone else. Sean is a planned child, and therein lies the difference. I don't love Julian any less as a child. He's still my son, whether he came from a bottle of whiskey or because they didn't have pills in those days. He's here, he belongs to me, and he always will.

I hated the way you fucking laugh!