Paul McCartney: Likeness

“While the others had got married and moved out to suburbia, I had stayed in London and got into the arts scene through friends like Robert Fraser and Barry Miles and papers like The International Times. We opened the Indica gallery with John Dunbar, Peter Asher and people like that. I heard about people like John Cage, and that he’d just performed a piece of music called 4’33” (which is completely silent) during which if someone in the audience coughed he would say, ‘See?’ Or someone would boo and he’d say, ‘See? It’s not silence—it’s music.’ I was intrigued by all of that. So these things started to be part of my life. I was listening to Stockhausen; one piece was all little plink-plonks and interesting ideas. Perhaps our audience wouldn’t mind a bit of change, we thought, and anyway, tough if they do! We only ever followed our own noses—most of the time, anyway. ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ was one example of developing an idea.”

Paul McCartney

The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 212

Life , People , Art , Music

“Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs
And what's wrong with that?
I'd like to know
'Cause here I go again…”

Paul McCartney

"Silly Love Songs", 1976
Lyrics, Wings
Context: You'd think that people would have had enough of silly love songs
I look around me and I see it isn't so
Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs
And what's wrong with that?
I'd like to know
'Cause here I go again...
I love you.

Love , People , World

“It's like if you're an astronaut and you've been to the moon, what do you want to do with the rest of your life?”

Paul McCartney

Life

“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

Of arranging, The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 175

Feeling , Learning

“I'd like to be able to go on holiday and not to have to hold my belly in for two whole weeks.”

Paul McCartney

Of his fear that paparazzi would take unflattering photos http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/leveson-inquiry/8932864/Sir-Paul-McCartney-had-phone-hacked.html

Holiday

“She's lovely, great. She was very friendly. She was just like a mum to us.”

Paul McCartney

About Queen Elizabeth II, in an interview after the Beatles received their MBEs from her (26 October 1965)

Love

“While the others had got married and moved out to suburbia, I had stayed in London and got into the arts scene through friends like Robert Fraser and Barry Miles and papers like The International Times.”

Paul McCartney

We opened the Indica gallery with John Dunbar, Peter Asher and people like that. I heard about people like John Cage, and that he’d just performed a piece of music called 4’33” (which is completely silent) during which if someone in the audience coughed he would say, ‘See?’ Or someone would boo and he’d say, ‘See? It’s not silence—it’s music.’ I was intrigued by all of that. So these things started to be part of my life. I was listening to Stockhausen; one piece was all little plink-plonks and interesting ideas. Perhaps our audience wouldn’t mind a bit of change, we thought, and anyway, tough if they do! We only ever followed our own noses—most of the time, anyway. ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ was one example of developing an idea.
The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 212

Time , Art