"I used to be cruel to my..." - Quote by John Lennon

“Songwriting is like ... being possessed. You try to go to sleep but the song won't let you.”

“Sitting in an EnglishGarden waiting for the sunIf the sun don't comeYou get a tan from standing in the English rain.”

“The only reason I went for that goal is that I wanted to say: 'Now, mummy-daddy, will you love me?'”

“The weapon of criticism can never replace the criticism of weapons.”

“I isolate this non-co-operation from Sinn Feinism, for it is so conceived as to be incapable of being offered side by side with violence.”

“If the desire to kill and the opportunity to kill came always together, who would escape hanging?”

“At the southern tip of the continent, a rich reward is in the making, an invaluable gift is in the preparation, for those who suffered in the name of all humanity when they sacrificed everything - for liberty, peace, human dignity and human fulfillment.The value of our shared reward will and must be measured by the joyful peace which will triumph, because of the common humanity that bonds both black and white into one human race, will have said to each one of us that we shall all live like the children of paradise.”

“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”

“I enjoyed it when football crowds in the early days would sing 'All together now' - that was another one. I was also pleased when the movement in America took up 'Give peace a chance' because I had written it with that in mind really.”