Top 200 Paul McCartney Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “That’s the terrible thing about growing up. You lose friends. It’s inevitable. It’s not like it’s a surprise. But it is terrible.”

— Paul McCartney

152. “One may not eat what has a face.”

— Paul McCartney

153. “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.”

— Paul McCartney

154. “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.”

— Paul McCartney

155. “I lost my voice. I’d never had to cancel a show before and I had to walk around with a pad and a pen, writing things down.”

— Paul McCartney

156. “A hundred years from now, people will listen to the music of the Beatles the same way we listen to Mozart.”

— Paul McCartney

157. “Why would I retire? Sit at home and watch TV? No thanks. I’d rather be out playing.”

— Paul McCartney

158. “I have always adored Mahler, and Mahler was a major influence on the music of the Beatles. John and me used to sit and do the Kindertotenlieder and Wunderhorn for hours, we’d take turns singing and playing the piano. We thought Mahler was gear.”

— Paul McCartney

159. “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.””

— Paul McCartney

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

— Paul McCartney

161. “I don’t take me seriously. If we get some giggles, I don’t mind.”

— Paul McCartney

162. “Help them to learn songs of joy, instead of burn, baby, burn.”

— Paul McCartney

163. “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.”

— Paul McCartney

164. “I realize now that taking drugs was like taking an aspirin without having a headache.”

— Paul McCartney

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

— Paul McCartney

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

— Paul McCartney

167. “If children are studying the 20th century, I’m in their text books.”

— Paul McCartney

168. “I’ve got a few guitars that I like. The trouble with fame and riches is that you have more than one guitar.”

— Paul McCartney

169. “I play to all people, and I play to people not governments, and I believe strongly that all people are peaceful and would want peace.”

— Paul McCartney

170. “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.”

— Paul McCartney

171. “If they won’t come to worship God in a church, something must be done. We have to instigate a nationwide search for a way to make it fun.”

— Paul McCartney

172. “I’m singing ‘English Tea’ from my new album ‘Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.’ I have a cup of tea in the morning, so it’s something good to wake up to.”

— Paul McCartney

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

— Paul McCartney

174. “Home in her apartment she’d dwell ’til the man from her dreams comes to break the spell.”

— Paul McCartney

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

— Paul McCartney

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

— Paul McCartney

177. “I don’t have any desire to learn. I feel it’s like a voodoo, that it would spoil things if I actually learnt how things are done.”

— Paul McCartney

178. “I look a lot busier than I am, as I’m actually a rather sporadic, random person and I’ll play a few gigs and then disappear for a while.”

— Paul McCartney

179. “A lot of the Beatles albums were very various, and we did it on purpose: We didn’t want the next track to sound like the last one.”

— Paul McCartney

180. “When you said you were a terrible singer, I thought you were being humble. But you weren’t.”

— Paul McCartney

181. “I can take pot or leave it. I got busted in Japan for it. I was nine days without it and there wasn’t a hint of withdrawal, nothing.”

— Paul McCartney

182. “No matter how accomplished or how many awards you get, you’re always still thinking there’s somebody out there who’s better than you.”

— Paul McCartney

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

— Paul McCartney

184. “The planet is under pressure and our choices have never been more important. The Food Revolution Summit is an informative and empowering platform which highlights ways to set a new pattern for the future of the planet.”

— Paul McCartney

185. “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.”

— Paul McCartney

186. “Lady Madonna lying on the bed Listen to the music playing in your head.”

— Paul McCartney

187. “I don’t know anything about the Appalachian mountains or cowboys and Indians or anything. I just made it up.”

— Paul McCartney

188. “As far as art’s concerned, I probably like modern art more than traditional art.”

— Paul McCartney

189. “I never look forward, because I have no idea about how any of it happened to getting here. I’ve no idea how the next five years are going to be.”

— Paul McCartney

190. “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.”

— Paul McCartney

191. “I used to think that all my Wings stuff was second-rate stuff, but I began to meet younger kids, not kids from my Beatle generation, who would say, We really love this song.”

— Paul McCartney

192. “I support decriminalisation. People are smoking pot anyway and to make them into criminals is wrong. It’s when you’re in jail you really become a criminal.”

— Paul McCartney

193. “Personal differences, musical differences, business differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family.”

— Paul McCartney

194. “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.”

— Paul McCartney

195. “It’s as serious as anyone ever gets, you know. It’s just words. It’s just good poetry.”

— Paul McCartney

196. “I hate the idea of success robbing you of your private life.”

— Paul McCartney

197. “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.”

— Paul McCartney

198. “Going to do it to you sweet banana, like it’s never been done, and we’ll get high, high, high, in the mid-day sun.”

— Paul McCartney

199. “It comes in handy in situations like that. People always expect you to be riding around in stretch limousines all the time, but I will sometimes take public transportation if it’s convenient, and it does surprise people, you see the heads turn.”

— Paul McCartney

200. “I do have a spongelike ear or mentality or whatever you call it, but it’s probably a bit subconscious.”

— Paul McCartney