John would have turned 76 today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!
Today, his legend lives on and so do his words. Here are some of his most thoughtful, touching and right-on quotes, that are all the more poignant since his passing.
On being an artist
“My role in society, or any artist’s or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.”
On love and marriage
“We’ve got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can’t just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it’s going to get on by itself. You’ve got to keep watering it. You’ve got to really look after it and nurture it.”
On his own mortality
“Everybody loves you when you’re six foot in the ground.”
“Guilt for being rich, and guilt thinking that perhaps love and peace isn’t enough and you have to go and get shot or something.”
On different perspectives
“When I was five 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.”
“Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it.”
On being himself
“I’m not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I’ve always been a freak. So I’ve been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I’m one of those people.”
“Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.”
On the world we live in
“If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.”
“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.”
“I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it’s in your mind. Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as the here and now?”