John Lennon citations célèbres
I suppose if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I would have gotten away with it. I'm sorry I opened my mouth. I'm not anti-God, anti-Christ, or anti-religion. I wasn't knocking it or putting it down. I was just saying it as a fact and it's true more for England than here. I'm not saying that we're better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing or whatever it is. I just said what I said and it was wrong. Or it was taken wrong. And now it's all this.
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Conférence de presse à Chicago, le 11 août 1966 en réponse et en excuses aux réactions outrées et violentes à travers les États-Unis suite à l’interview de l’Evening Standard.
“Dieu est un concept / Par lequel nous pouvons mesurer / Notre douleur”
God is a concept / By which we can measure / Our pain
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John Lennon Citations
Everybody seems to think I'm lazy/I don't mind, I think they're crazy/Running everywhere at such a speed/Till they find there's no need (there's no need). Please, don't spoil my day, I'm miles away/And after all I'm only sleeping.
Imagine there's no heaven / It's easy if you try / No hell below us / Above us only sky / Imagine all the peopleLiving for today... Imagine there's no countries / It isn't hard to do / Nothing to kill or die for / And no religion too / Imagine all the people / Living life in peace... Imagine no possessions / I wonder if you can/No need for greed or hunger / In a brotherhood of man / Imagine all the people / Sharing all the world... You may say i'm a dreamer / But i'm not the only one / I hope some day you'll join us / And the world will be as one
en
Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue with that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first — rock and roll or Christianity.
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Propos recueillis par la journaliste britannique Maureen Cleave pour le périodique Evening Standard dans son édition du 4 mars 1966
On the next number, would those in the cheaper seats clap your hands ? All the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry!
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Déclaration faite en annonce du titre Twist and Shout lors de la prestation des Beatles au «Royal Variety Performance» le 4 novembre 1963 au théâtre «Prince of Wales» de Londres devant la Reine Elisabeth, la Reine Mère, et la Princesse Margaret.
John Lennon: Citations en anglais
Letter to Queen Elizabeth II sent in 1969 with his MBE, explaining why he was returning it. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-37787297
John Lennon livre A Spaniard in the Works
"A Spaniard In The Works" from A Spaniard In The Works (1965); this has sometimes been misquoted as if Lennon were speaking specifically about Jesus Christ, when in fact, it is part of the odd narration of an odd story with elements of satire, about a Spanish groom named "Jesus El Pifico".
"Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" (1967)
Lyrics
Source: The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 300
“It makes rock concerts look like tea parties.”
Commenting on American Football, in interview with Howard Cosell on ABC Television (December 1974)
“For the benefit of Mr. Kite
there will be a show tonight on trampoline.”
"Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" (1967)
Lyrics
“You have to be! (Laughs) You might get shot!”
Responding to a reporter question during The Beatles Australian tour of if they were aware of everything going on around them. http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=5x5UUQM2Qy4
“Mother, you had me, but I never had you.”
"Mother"
Lyrics, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)
Quoted as a 1968 statement of Lennon's in Sunday Tasmanian (29 September 1996), and in The Rough Guide to the Beatles (2003) by Chris Ingham, p. 271, this actually derives from a statement which Lennon perhaps had been quoting:
Were art to redeem man, it could do so only by saving him from the seriousness of life and restoring him to an unexpected boyishness.
José Ortega y Gasset, in "Art a Thing of No Consequence" in The Dehumanization of Art (1925)
Misattributed
Source: The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 301
“You say you want a Revolution; you better get it on right away.”
"Power to the People"
Lyrics
“They hate you if you're clever, and they despise a fool.”
"Working Class Hero"
Lyrics, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)
“I've sold my soul to the devil.”
On the commercial success of the Beatles, as quoted in Lennon (1985) by Ray Coleman
Playboy interview (1980)
On whether he's under Yoko's spell, under her control
Playboy interview (1980)
Pop Chronicles: Show 27 - The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming!: The U.S.A. is invaded by a wave of long-haired English rockers. Part 1 https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19782/m1/#track/4, 24 August 1964 http://www.jpgr.co.uk/pro202.html.
Playboy interview (1980)
Rolling Stone interview (1980)
“Everything is as important as everything else.”
On influences, p. 8
The Beatles Anthology (2000)
Interview on Scene And Heard by David Wigg (25 October 1971)
Playboy interview (1980)
Interview on The David Frost Show (14 June 1969) http://web.archive.org/web/20010719003543/http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/pob07.html
Source: As quoted in Rolling Stone (7 January 1971) , and requoted in The Sociology of Rock by Simon Frith, 1978 ISBN 0094602204
When asked if they wouldn't sing because they couldn't, in a press conference at John F. Kennedy Airport (7 February 1964) http://www.dmbeatles.com/interviews.php?interview=10
John Lennon, in "Instant Karma!" (written 27 January 1970)
Lyrics
"Strawberry Fields Forever" (1967)
Lyrics
