Top 140 Quotes & Sayings by Ringo Starr

I'd like to end up sort of unforgettable.

And I came back and it was great, 'cuz George had set up all these flowers all over the studio saying welcome home. So then we got it together again. I always felt it was better on the White one for me. We were more like a band, you know.

People only look at me as a Beatle, but my friends look at me as a whole person. That's how life works, but it's not bugging me anymore.

First and foremost I am a drummer. After that, I'm other things... But I didn't play drums to make money.

I want to deal with what's in front of me now to the best of my abilities, and sometimes that's not very good. But a lot of the days it is really great.

George was getting alot of independence for himself in those days. He was writing more, and wanted things to go his way - where, when we first started things basically went John and Paul's way. You know, 'cuz they were the writers.

Drumming is my middle name.

For me, God is in my life. I don't hide from that... I think the search has been on since the '60s.

I've said this over and over again, but I love being in a band.

Gene Autry was the most. It may sound like a joke - Go and have a look in my bedroom, It's covered with Gene Autry posters. He was my first musical influence.

Everything government touches turns to crap.

When they come here, the English make a choice: New York or L.A. L.A. suited me better, I just feel comfortable here.

Well, I'm getting happier all the time, which is very nice.

I feel the older I get, the more I'm learning to handle life. Being on this quest for a long time, it's all about finding yourself.

I get by with a little help from my friends.

The second side of Abbey Road is my favorite.

I've never been able to sit round on my own and play drums, practice in the back room, never been able to. I've always played with other musicians. It's how I play, there's no joy for me in playing on my own, bashing away. I need a bass, a piano, guitar, whatever, and then I can play.

Being in The Beatles was a short, incredible period of my life. I had 22 years leading up to it, and it was all over eight years later.

That's when we decided to stop in '66. Everyone thought we toured for years, you know, but we didn't. I joined in '62, and we'd finished touring in '66 to go into the studio where we could hear each other... and create any fantasy that came out of anybody's brain.

I mean, women are very important to me. I don't know, they just drive me crazy.

People in Liverpool don't move very far, you know.

I never studied anything, really. I didn't study the drums. I joined bands and made all the mistakes onstage.

So this is America. They must be out of their minds.

I couldn't put my finger on one reason why we broke up. It was time, and we were spreading out. They were spreading out more than I was. I would've stayed with the band.

We will miss George for his sense of love, his sense of music and his sense of laughter.

And the White Album is important to me for different reasons. One - I had left the band on the White Album.

That's all drugs and alcohol do, they cut off your emotions in the end.

At the end of the day, I can end up just totally wacky, because I've made mountains out of molehills. With meditation, I can keep them as molehills.

I love the modern technology now.

When I was thirteen I only wanted to be a drummer.

I like Beethoven, especially the poems.

I'm on my feet and I'm doing what I love to do, and I'm in a profession, as a musician, where we can go on for as long as we can go on.

If you made a record, I'd probably pick out tracks that I like and download that. That's just how it is.

I don't collect any memorabilia. I wish I'd have kept everything I had. But who knew you had to keep it. Just gave it away. And we lost so much and we didn't look after a lot of it.

I think the most exciting thing is that you expect people our age to know the music, but actually a lot of kids know the music, and if anything is left, we have left really good music, and that's the important part, not the mop-tops or whatever.

And in a marriage you can't TRY and be married. You're married or you're not married... as far as I'm concerned.

I am a big Beatles fan. And, you know, unbeknownst to anyone, I used to be one. But I have no problems of putting titles and lines from other songs in my songs, because they're great lines and great titles.

We've got the children so we have to deal with each other because we have to deal with children's problems, you know, and our own problems. But some days it's fine, and then some days we just are at each other's throat.

I don't talk about myself in the third person, and I laugh at people who do.

America: It's like Britain, only with buttons.

I mean, I was born the day war broke out, but I don't remember all the bombs though they did actually break up Liverpool, you know. I remember when I was a little older, there was big gaps in all the streets where houses used to be. We used to play over them.

And so we went away to play, and we'd come back to Liverpool. And while we were doing this - 'cuz we did it for two years. And then we'd go to Germany, and that's where I met the Beatles.

I'm not sleeping with all the women I appear with.

Roy Orbison was the only act that The Beatles didn't want to follow.

You either kiss the future or the past goodbye.

I've always felt that a space is as good as a fill.

I'm left handed and I'm playing a right handed kit... That's why everyone thought, 'Wow, he's a genius,' but all I was doing was trying to play backwards... It's one of those mad accidents, you can't learn it.

Peace and love, peace and love!

Ringo: 'I had no schooling before I joined The Beatles and no schooling after The Beatles. Life is a great education.

Let's make my birthday, July the 7th at noon, Peace and Love Day. Everybody go, 'Peace and love.' In the office, on the bus, wherever. It's still peace and love for me, I'm a product of the 60s and it was a very influential period in my life, and you know, my head was turned around a bit, my eyes were opened as it were. In fact, I even have it on my arm, 'Peace and love'. I see nothing wrong with peace and love.

The Beatles were just four guys that loved each other. That's all they'll ever be.

The trouble with leaving your feet on the ground is you never get to take your pants off.

I know when I feel good when I play. There's a closeness with musicians you only get from playing live, even in the studio it's still playing live. For me, it's what expands my soul.

I learned to knit in hospital. They give you stuff to do to keep you busy because you're so ill.

Take a dose of rock and roll, and wash it down with cool clear soul.

Fondest memory of being a Beatle: Having three brothers.

Of course I'm ambitious. What's wrong with that? Otherwise you sleep all day.

F irst and foremost I am a drummer. After that, I'm other things... But I didn't play drums to make money. I played drums because I loved them... My soul is that of a drummer... It came to where I had to make a decision - I was going to be a drummer. Everything else goes now. I play drums. It was a conscious moment in my life when I said the rest of things were getting in the way. I didn't do it to be come rich and famous, I did it because it was the love of my life.

My soul is that of a drummer.... I didn't do it to become rich and famous. I did it because it was the love of my life.

With God's help, I've not had a drink in nine and a half years. That's my whole story right there. And because of that, I'm doing this. I'm making records, I'm touring. I was so involved in just getting brain damaged, I wasn't doing anything. I had great ideas, many notebooks filled with notes, some of them I can read and some of them I just can't read, but I really didn't do anything constructive, it was all just good ideas. Now I'm trying to lead a constructive life a day at a time.