These critics with the illusions they've created about artists - it's like idol worship. They only like people when they're on their way up... I cannot be on the way up again.

You have to be a bastard to make it, and that's a fact. And the Beatles are the biggest bastards on earth.

One of my big things is that I wish to be a fisherman. I know it sounds silly ​and I'd sooner be rich than poor, and all the rest of that... but I wish the pain was ignorance or bliss or something.

The postman wants an autograph. The cab driver wants a picture. The waitress wants a handshake. Everyone wants a piece of you.

It was like being in the eye of a hurricane. You'd wake up in a concert and think, Wow, how did I get here?

We were four guys... I met Paul, and said, 'You want to join me band?' Then George joined and then Ringo joined. We were just a band that made it very, very, big, that's all. Our best work was never recorded.