Paul McCartney Quotes

When you first get money, you buy all these things so no one thinks you're mean, and you spread it around. You get a chauffeur and you find yourself thrown around the back of this car and you think, I was happier when I had my own little car! I could drive myself!

But you know, as a kid I would have thought of a vegetarian as a wimp.

I was still 15 when I met John Lennon at a village fete in Woolton, in Liverpool.

I think people who create and write, it actually does flow-just flows from into their head, into their hand, and they write it down. It's simple.

We were a savage little lot, Liverpool kids, not pacifist or vegetarian or anything. But I feel I've gone beyond that, and that it was immature to be so prejudiced and believe in all the stereotypes.

I used to think that all my Wings stuff was second-rate stuff, but I began to meet younger kids, not kids from my Beatle generation, who would say, We really love this song.

One of my biggest thrills for me still is sitting down with a guitar or a piano and just out of nowhere trying to make a song happen.

Look, people are allowed their own opinions and they don't always coincide with yours. As an artist you just have to keep plugging on.

I saw that Meryl Streep said, I just want to do my job well. And really, that's all I'm ever trying to do.

With the Beatles, we'd been very spoiled because we had George Martin who worked for the record label we were going to be signed to. That was very fortunate, because we grew together.

I don't take me seriously. If we get some giggles, I don't mind.

I definitely did look up to John. We all looked up to John. He was older and he was very much the leader; he was the quickest wit and the smartest.

If children are studying the 20th century, I'm in their text books.

I'm often reading a magazine and hearing about someone's new record, and I think, 'Oh, boy, that's gonna be better than me.' It's a very common thing.

I like the idea that people hear my stuff, and if it's commercially successful, that's a good sign that it's being heard.

I'm the worst on facts about me or facts about the Beatles.

None of us wanted to be the bass player. In our minds he was the fat guy who always played at the back.

I don't work at being ordinary.

Looking back, I think I was always musical. My dad was very musical, and I think my mom was musical.

I'm always writing songs, and I've got a bunch that I want to record.

Where I come from, you don't really talk about how much you're earning. Those things are private. My dad never told my mum how much he was earning. I'm certainly not going to tell the world. I'm doing well.

Why would I retire? Sit at home and watch TV? No thanks. I'd rather be out playing.

John's time and effort were, in the main, spent on pretty honorable stuff. As for the other side, well, nobody's perfect, nobody's Jesus. And look what they did to him.

It's also not unusual for writers to look backward. Because that's your pool of resources.

I think the pop industry is still a young man's game.

Somebody said to me, 'But the Beatles were anti-materialistic.' That's a huge myth. John and I literally used to sit down and say, 'Now, let's write a swimming pool.'

In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

There are only four people who knew what the Beatles were about anyway.

She is the rock 'n' roll queen. Weirdly enough, that is one of the things her reign will be remembered for. Queen Elizabeth I, we remember Raleigh; Queen Elizabeth II it's gonna be the Beatles.

When I sit down to write a song, it's a kind of improvisation, but I formalize it a bit to get it into the studio, and when I step up to a microphone, I have a vague idea of what I'm about to do.

I have not practiced how to be a singer without an instrument.

I knew the words to 25 rock songs, so I got in the group. Long Tall Sally and Tutti-Frutti, that got me in. That was my audition.

I never really got on that well with Yoko anyway. Strangely enough, I only started to get to know her after John's death.

I don't ever try to make a serious social comment.

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.

It's time to end the cruel slaughter of whales and leave these magnificent creatures alone.

I had this song called Helter Skelter, which is just a ridiculous song. So we did it like that, 'cuz I like noise.

Being in the audience actually looks like quite a lot of fun.

We were pretty good mates until the Beatles started to split up and Yoko came into it. It was more like old army buddies splitting up on account of wedding bells.

I look a lot busier than I am, as I'm actually a rather sporadic, random person and I'll play a few gigs and then disappear for a while.

I can take pot or leave it. I got busted in Japan for it. I was nine days without it and there wasn't a hint of withdrawal, nothing.

I'm not religious, but I'm very spiritual.

My old school in Liverpool is now a performing-arts school, and I kind of teach there - I use the word lightly - but I go there and talk to students.

I used to think anyone doing anything weird was weird. Now I know that it is the people that call others weird that are weird.

Putting two songs together, I've always loved that trick when it works.

I got my first guitar when I was 15, and I just used to fool about with it, more or less, as time went by, though, I got more interested.

I feel that if I said anything about John, I would have to sit here for five days and say it all. Or I don't want to say anything.

My dad, bless him, was a musician. And his dad had thought that his music was rubbish.

I used to think that anyone doing anything weird was weird. I suddenly realized that anyone doing anything weird wasn't weird at all and it was the people saying they were weird that were weird.

I've got to admit it's getting better. It's a little better all the time.