Ringo starr quotes

I'm always good for starting a bit of a tune and the first verse, but after that I just can never go anywhere. It takes me years, that's why I'm so slow.

I like Beethoven, especially the poems.

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.

Beatles, women and children first!

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.

I'm the greatest in this world.

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

The point is it is amazing that the generations have joined in the Beatle madness and love the music. Who knew?

For me, I want to get across the stage to the people. I want to point at you, thirty, forty rows back, and you know I'm pointing at you, and we're having a laugh and getting it together.

Fondest memory of being a Beatle: Having three brothers.

I was in George Martin's studio in Amsterdam and he was telling me, 'They come in here and it takes them three days to do a bass line.' Well I'm not from that era.

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

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.

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.

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.

I love that about the Beatles, that the music is still going on more than the haircut, you know.

If you could play, I'd play with you all night. But if I'm just playing by myself, it gets boring pretty quick.

We'd get in the car and i'd look over at John and say 'Christ. Look at you. You're a bloody phenomenon!' and just laugh because it was only him.

I'm not going to say anything because nobody believes me when I do.

I've been asked to write my autobiography and really they only want 8 years (1962-1970), and I keep saying it would be five volumes before I even got into the band!

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.

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.

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.

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

You either kiss the future or the past goodbye.

There's a woman in the United States who predicted the plane we were traveling on would crash. Now, a lot of people would like to think we were scared into saying a prayer. What we did actually--we drank.

Peace and love, peace and love!

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

I never take it as any real pressure. It's like my son. I only gave him one lesson. When I went to give him the second one he said, 'Oh, I can do that dad.' I said, 'Now you're on your own.'

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

I get on with kids and I feel that's because I am one.

I have a trainer who comes three times a week and just listens to me moan... and I keep fit and keep moving... and I do watch what I eat. I am a vegetarian... I can't eat crazy food. I'm highly allergic to onions and garlic and spices... I've never had a pizza, never had a curry.

From 13, I wanted to play drums. I wanted to play with good people and I'm still doing it. I still love it so that's why I do it.

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

A lot of the players I'm with, thank God, we're all still vertical. We've lost so many great players through the years, and we're still standing, as Elton John says.

I've always been playing with other people, and that's how I learned. I got a kit of drums I couldn't play, but I also knew a guitarist and a friend of mine played bass and could teach us bass, and we just played. And I learned.

We [the band] had this open door policy - if you walked in the door, you were asked to play

I used to wish I could write songs like the others - and I've tried but I just can't. I get the words all right, but whenever I think of a tune and sing it to the others they always say 'Yeah, it always sounds like such a thing' and when they point it out I see what they mean. But I did get a part credit as a composer on one - it was called What Goes On.

I don't particularly like messages, because everybody takes whatever they take from whatever.

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.

I'm warning you with peace and love I have too much to do. So no more fan mail. Thank you, thank you. And no objects to be signed, nothing. Peace and love, peace and love.

Every time, my syncopation is different, because I can never play the same fill twice. I just can't, never have been able to. Even as a Beatle, they'd say, 'Oh, double-track that.' I don't know how you do that, because when I'm in a fill I'm sort of this blackout, just this pure me coming out and I can't pure me the same, twice. So, that's that.

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.

They said do what you want, because if we don't like it no one will hear it.

The drummer's always going to be there. They're the floor of the whole deal and everyone can stand up on you.

This was the point of our lives when we found pills, uppers. That's the only way we could continue playing for so long. They were called Preludin, and you could buy them over the counter. We never thought we were doing anything wrong, but we'd get really wired and go on for days. So with beer and Preludin, that's how we survived.

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

I'd like to be in a man band, but with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Keith Richards. We'd have a rocky edge.

I've never really done anything to create what has happened. It creates itself. I'm here because it happened. But I didn't do anything to make it happen apart from saying 'Yes'

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

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

You got to pay your dues if you want to sing the blues...And you know it don't come easy.

I think we should have understanding and love and peace. I mean, peace and love has been my situation. You hear that in the song. I'm trying to promote that now: peace and love and understanding.

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

You're like the devil with horns in your head, the only way I'll get you is to get you in bed.

I made all my mistakes playing with people.

I play weird. I'm always just behind. We [drummers] only have so much room. We're not guitarists.

I've never broken a bone in my life, or in my body.

They paint you red before they sacrifice you. It's a different religion from ours - I think.

I feel as though that was someone else playing. I was possessed!

Ten years from now, it'll all be the blues because that's the only speed I'll be able to play

Do you remember when everyone began analyzing Beatles songs..I don't think I ever understood what some of them were supposed to be about

I've never gone to the bedroom when I was starting out and practiced away.

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.

I am the best rock drummer on the planet.

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 main thing is not to be afraid of that, to get to a place where you'll go gracefully, not screaming and kicking up a fuss.

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

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

I hate click tracks. A lot of people I know like to use click tracks. Like my son is perfect on the click tracks. It makes me to edgy.

Drumming is my middle name.

I'd like to end up sort ofunforgettable.

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

I'm not the creative one. I know that. If Rory Storm hadn't come along... and then The Beatles... I would have continued running around in teddyboy gangs. Today, well... I'd probably be a laborer. I'm glad I'm not, of course. It'll be nice to be part of history... some sort of history anyway. What I'd like to be is in school history books and be read by kids.

I'm nervous ahead of every gig. I feel like running away three seconds before I'm due on stage. But I'm all right as soon as I get the mic in my hand.

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

John had Julian and I had Zak so we'd try to do the fatherly things. We'd try to do manly things too; we'd go to the pub and bring Maureen and Cynthia a Babycham or something- a real Liverpool attitude

No, no, no, I don't snort no more, I'm tired of waking up on the floor. No thank you please, it only makes me sneeze, then it makes it hard to find the door.

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

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

When I run on stage now, a thousand people don't even see you, they're in their phone.

I am, I definitely am. I'm really excited about that.

I used to wear different rings when I first got called Ringo in about 19, about, umm, '59 I got called Ringo.

When I'm ninety-five and it's 'This is Your Life' time, they'll still be referring to me as 'ex-Beatle'...it does have it's advantages. It's still the best way to get a good table at a resturant.

I have no anonymity.I've not had a drink in nine and a half years. That's my whole story right there.

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.

I've never had any big ideas about being the solo.

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 like playing with a live band and I've got my act and we're fine.

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.

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

I think I'm more prolific in the songwriting.

I was the new boy. It was like joining a new class at school where everybody knows everybody else but me.

The kids are interested in the music of them. They're not interested in mop-tops and Beatle boots and crazy suits. It's all down to the music now - that's what they hear, and that's what they love.

I don't like talking. It's how I'm built. Some people gab all day and some play it smogo. I don't mind talking or smiling, it's just I don't do it very much. I haven't got a smiling face or a talking mouth.

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

I'm a musician and I'm really blessed, because in my life if I can hold the sticks, I can play.

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

Gaps can be very emotional. I mean, that's in my drumming. When I drum, you know, I don't need to drum all over the track. I play with the singer and I can back off.

It all comes down to who you crucify, you either kiss the past or future good-bye.

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.

My occupation is syncopation. But, every time, my syncopation is different, because I can never play the same fill twice. I just can't, never have been able to.

Wake up meat head, don't pretend that you are dead.

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

I'm like everyone else, on the stage it's good. Not too much fun in the hotel or the airplane or the bus, but you got to do it.

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 hate click tracks. I'm to busy in the click track to feel my own heart rhythm, my own soul beat.

Everything government touches turns to crap.

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

The second side of Abbey Road is my favorite.

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.

I love being in a band. I love playing with other human beings. I've never practiced drums unless there was another human being in the room.

The business is so driven by money, everyone's trying to get it right.

I am truly grateful. I'm a grateful human being.

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.

Ringo: 'I do get emotional when I think back about those times. My make-up is emotional. I'm an emotional human being. I'm very sensitive and it took me till I was forty-eight to realize that was the problem! We were honest with each other and we were honest about the music. The music was positive. It was positive in love. They did write - we all wrote - about other things, but the basic Beatles message was Love.

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

I hope the fans will take up meditation instead of drugs.

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.

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.

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.

I'm quite honored by it. They [people] tell me that , 'If it hadn't of been for you, I wouldn't have played drums.' Hey, don't blame me, I was just up there doing my stuff. So no, I never take it as any real pressure.

We thought we'd be really big in Liverpool.