John Lennon on Jesus: 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. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me. (Evening Standard, 1966)

On the fallout from his Jesus comments: “I'm not anti-God, anti-Christ, or anti-religion.” (News conference, Chicago, 1966)

On being offered an M.B.E: “We thought being offered the M.B.E. was as funny as everybody else thought it was. Why? What for? We didn't believe it. It was a part we didn't want. We all met and agreed it was daft.” (The Beatles, 1968)

After meeting Elvis in 1965: “Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn't been an Elvis, there wouldn't have been the Beatles.” (The Beatles: The Authorized Biography, 1968).

On peace: “We're trying to sell peace, like a product, you know, and sell it like people sell soap or soft drinks.” (The David Frost Show, 1969)

At The Beatles' infamous rooftop gig: “I'd like to say 'thank you' on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we passed the audition.”

On The Beatles' split: “People keep talking about it like it's The End of The Earth. It's only a rock group that split up, it's nothing important.” (Scene and Heard, 1971)

On dreams: “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.”

About the song 'I'm A Loser': “Part of me suspects that I'm a loser and the other part of me thinks I'm God Almighty.” (Playboy interview, 1980)

On The Beatles' humour: “That's part of our policy, is not to be taken seriously, because I think our opposition, whoever they may be, in all their manifest forms, don't know how to handle humour.” (BBC interview, 1969)

On the 1960s: “It wasn't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.” (KFRC RKO Radio, 1980)

Speaking about his future music on the day of his death: “I've always considered my work one piece and I consider that my work won't be finished until I am dead and buried and I hope that's a long, long time.” (RKO Radio, 1980)