Top 308 Quotes & Sayings by Paul McCartney - Page 2

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

My so-called career is a haphazard thing.

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 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 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 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.

Somewhere down the line everyone must pay for their misdeeds.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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'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.

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

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.

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

What I have to say is all in the music. If I want to say anything, I write a song.

The best thing I ever saw was a man who loved his wife.

We got into music to avoid a job, and get lots of girls.

The interesting thing about the Beatles was: The music was one thing, but we kind of symbolized a certain kind of freedom at a time when people of our generation were just growing up and just becoming adults.

There will be an answer. Let it be.

Take these broken wings and learn to fly.

The good Lord made this world and everything that's in it. The way I see it, baby, you got to love it to the limit.

Sadness isn't sadness. It's happiness in a black jacket. Tears are not tears. They're balls of laughter dipped in salt. Death is not death. It's life that's jumped off a tall cliff.

I have such an admiration for John [Lennon], like most people. But to be the guy who wrote with him, well that's enough. Right there you could retire and go, 'Jesus I had a fantastic life. Take me, Lord.'

I doubt very much if The Beatles would have happened if it was not for Elvis.

There's nothing like the eureka moment of knocking off a song that didn't exist before - I won't compare it to sex, but it lasts longer.

There’s nothing as glamorous to me as a record store.

I meet so many people that just sort of say, "I want to thank you for your music. It really helped me" or "It changed my life."

You've got to believe in yourself. ..it really is true, because that's one thing about the Beatles...Man, we believed in ourselves. We knew we were good.

My message is a peaceful one and I hope that the idea will spread.

One of my great memories of John is from when we were having some argument. I was disagreeing and we were calling each other names. We let it settle for a second and then he lowered his glasses and he said: "It's only me." And then he put his glasses back on again. To me, that was John. Those were the moments when I actually saw him without the facade, the armor, which I loved as well, like anyone else. It was a beautiful suit of armor. But it was wonderful when he let the visor down and you'd just see the John Lennon that he was frightened to reveal to the world.

Songs have some kind of structure that connects with people`s hearts.

You can judge a man's true character by the way he treats his fellow animals.

We live in hope of deliverance from the darkness that surrounds us

I realized marvelling at nature was a deep pleasure of mine.

Be cool and you'll be alright. That's rock & roll religion.

With life and all I've been through, I do have a belief in goodness, a good spirit. I think what people have done with religion is personified good and evil, so good's become God with 'o' out, and evil's become Devil with a 'd' added. That's my theory of religion.

One may not eat what has a face.

To this day, if I ever meet grownups who play ukulele, I love 'em.

Painting is similar to music. You get a couple or words or notes or chords that excite you, and you just follow them and add a bit more and see where it takes you. That's the thrill for me. It still is a thrill, which is amazing after all this time.

When you get the money, you still need to keep going; you don't stop. There has to be something else. I think it's the freedom to do what you want and to live your dreams.

When you're wide awake say it for goodness sake, it's gonna be a great day.

I am a vegetarian because I realized that even little chickens suffer pain and fear, experience a range of feelings and emotions, and are as intelligent as mammals, including dogs, cats, and even some primates.

No one is out to break your heart, it only seems that way.

Painting is a magical process that I like, where you conjure something out of nothing; you get a little idea that leads you through ... You can go into a trance while you're doing it, so it's a nice contrast to real life.

If you love your life, everybody will love you too.

I love to hear a choir. I love the humanity... to see the faces of real people devoting themselves to a piece of music. I like the teamwork. It makes me feel optimistic about the human race when I see them cooperating like that.

...We can work it out. Life is very short, and there's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend.

When you were young, and your heart, was an open book. You used to say, live and let live.

Having a beard is natural. When you think about it, shaving it off is quite weird.

For tomorrow may rain, so I'll follow the sun...

Life is an energy field, a bunch of molecules. And these particular molecules formed to make these four guys, who then formed into this band called the Beatles and did all that work. I have to think that was something metaphysical. Something alchemic. Something that must be thought of as magic.

There must be a better way to make the things we want, a way that doesn't spoil the sky, or the rain or the land

If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That's the single most important thing you could do. It's staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty.

I still believe that love is all you need. I don't know a better message than that.

People would say to me, “Hey man, you look just like Paul McCartney”, and I'd say: “I wish I had his money!”

Out of all those millions and millions of planets floating around there in space, this is our planet, this is our little one, so we just got to be aware of it and take care of it.