John Lennon on Life

"There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life."

"I was the dreamweaver, but now I'm rebornI was the Walrus, but now I'm JohnAnd so dear friends, you'll just have to carry onThe dream is over."

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

"You know life can be longAnd you got to be so strongAnd the world is so toughSometimes I feel I've had enough"

"How can I go forward when I don't know which way I'm facing?"

"I wouldn't say I was a born writer; I'm a born thinker."

"The more I see, the less I know for sure."

"There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be..."

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

"I'm not claiming divinity. I've never claimed purity of soul. I've never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can … But I still believe in peace, love and understanding."

"Radio Dial Scan of the night Lennon died"

"Well, I don't want to be a soldier mama, I don't want to dieWell, I don't want to be a sailor mama, I don't want to flyWell, I don't want to be a failure mama, I don't want to cryWell, I don't want to be a soldier mama, I don't want to die"

"You can shine your shoes and wear a suitYou can comb your hair and look quite cute...You can go to church and sing a hymnYou can judge me by the color of my skinYou can live a lie until you dieOne thing you can't hideIs when you're crippled inside"

"It can never be again! Everyone always talks about a good thing coming to an end, as if life was over. But I'll be 40 when this interview comes out. Paul is 38. Elton John, Bob Dylan — we're all relatively young people. The game isn't over yet. Everyone talks in terms of the last record or the last Beatle concert — but, God willing, there are another 40 years of productivity to go. I'm not judging whether "I Am The Walrus" is better or worse than "Imagine." It is for others to judge. I am doing it. I do. I don't stand back and judge — I do."

"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."

"It's better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out. I don't appreciate worship of dead Sid Vicious or of dead James Dean or of dead John Wayne. It's the same thing. Making Sid Vicious a hero, Jim Morrison — it's garbage to me. I worship the people who survive. Gloria Swanson, Greta Garbo."

"I've never met anybody who's had a flashback in my life and I took millions of trips in the Sixties, and I've never met anybody who had any problem. I've had bad trips, but I've had bad trips in real life. I've had a bad trip on a joint. I can get paranoid just sitting in a restaurant; I don't have to take anything."