Lyricists play with words.

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.

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

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

The Stones also still have a huge following. Mick Jagger leaps around like a crazy dude. And Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts are playing great too.

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

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 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 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.

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.

You see, my mother was a district nurse until she died when I was 14, and we used to move from time to time because of her work.

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

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

Someone like John would want to end the Beatle period and start the Yoko period. He wouldn't like either to interfere with the other.

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

Microphones are just like people, if you shout at them, they get scared.

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.

To keep the record straight, it wasn't always John and Yoko. We've all accused one another of various business things; we tend to be pretty paranoid by now, as you can imagine. There's a lot of money involved.

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

I love the past. There are parts of the past I hate, of course.

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

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.

But with writers, there's nothing wrong with melancholy. It's an important color in writing.

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.

My so-called career is a haphazard thing.

I think I always had a musicality, and I think I could tell a good song from a bad song. And I would appreciate hearing something that was new to me.

I'm a pretty hands-on dad and make the most of my custody. I take care of my little one whenever I can, and she determines what I can do and where I can do it.

At the end of the Beatles, I really was done in for the first time in my life. Until then, I really was a kind of cocky sod.

Somewhere down the line everyone must pay for their misdeeds.

It was Elvis who really got me hooked on beat music. When I heard 'Heartbreak Hotel' I thought, this is it.

And I loved Fats Waller. I love his instrumental abilities, his vocal abilities and his sense of humor.

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

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.

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.'

George wrote Taxman, and I played guitar on it. He wrote it in anger at finding out what the taxman did. He had never known before then what could happen to your money.

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

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

So, if I'm cooking, I'll be steaming vegetables, making some nice salad, that kind of stuff.

Nothing pleases me more than to go into a room and come out with a piece of music.

The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

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

Love is all you need.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.