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Yoko Ono Quotes

Yoko Ono
  • Mini Bio
  • Name: Yoko Ono
  • Born: 18th February 1933, Tokyo, Japan
  • Alma mater: Jiyu Gakuen Music School and Gakushuin University
  • Occupation: Musician, poet and artist
  • Genre: Avant Garde, Rock and Pop
  • Height: 5' 2" (1.57 m)
  • Inspired: Kate Millett, Kate Pierson, John Lennon and Meredith Monk
  • Politics: She has been politically active since the 1960's citing peace and human rights as the mainstay of her beliefs
  • Trivia: On the 5th January 2008 Ono took a full page ad in the New York Times that delivered the message "IMAGINE PEACE"

"Time is a concept that humans created"

Yoko Ono

"In a day, sometimes I feel so much love for the world, I think my heart is bursting"

Yoko Ono

"John and I felt that we were like people in an H. G. Wells story. Two people who are walking so fast that nobody else can see them"

Yoko Ono

"We were very wise when we were young. We are getting a bit doubtful of ourselves now. Don’t be. The child in you will save you"

Yoko Ono

"Remember, our hearts are one. Even when we are at war with each other, our hearts are always beating in unison"

Yoko Ono

"Don't ever give up on life. Life can be so beautiful, especially after you've spent a lot of time with it"

Yoko Ono

"We have to rely on people, ... Not government. Governments always have red tape. Our imaginations don’t"

Yoko Ono

"Listen to the sound of the Earth turning. We are all turning together. Isn’t it nice?"

Yoko Ono

"A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality"

Yoko Ono

"You change the world by being yourself"

Yoko Ono

"Smile to the future and it will smile back to you"

Yoko Ono

"Every drop in the ocean counts"

Yoko Ono

"Start thinking peace, and the message will spread quicker than you think"

Yoko Ono

"Art is my life and my life is art"

Yoko Ono

"Healing yourself is connected with healing others"

Yoko Ono

"A girl's best beauty aid is still a near-sighted man"

Yoko Ono

"The Establishment likes people who take no responsibility and cannot respect themselves"

Yoko Ono

"I think it’s better to dance rather than to march through life, don’t you?"

Yoko Ono

"It's better that you're criticized than complimented as a person"

Yoko Ono

"Remember, each one of us has the power to change the world"

Yoko Ono

"Do you know why you are in love when you are in love?"

Yoko Ono

"Your life changes, we can change the world, too"

Yoko Ono

"Release your emotion in order to keep your sanity"

Yoko Ono

"The opposite of love is fear, not hate"

Yoko Ono

"Only art and music have the power to bring peace"

Yoko Ono
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Yoko Ono Biography

Yoko Ono has a fascinating background coming from a colourful family tree steeped in history that can be traced back to a ninth century emperor on her fathers side while her maternal bloodline is immersed in samurai heritage with family ties to the Yasuda clan.

Ono received a privileged upbringing and education that was turned upside down as WWII was coming to a close. She survived the 1945 Tokyo bombing although her family were initially displaced they recovered and Yoko resumed her education at Gakushuin in 1946.

In the early 1950's she moved to New York to join her family and she quickly integrated herself into the bohemian life style of the avant garde New York set. Although Yoko met scorn and disapproval from her family for associating herself with these arty types she was drawn by their artistic creativity as she could see so much of herself in them, they gave her the inspiration to pursue her art in her own right.

Much has been made of her marriage to John Lennon but Yoko was an artist in her own right before they met at one of her London exhibitions in 1966, indeed Lennon himself has put his own post Beatles artistic success firmly down to the influence of Ono.

As an artist Ono was before her time in concept, delivery and perception, she had an artistic sense that made her see the world very differently to the populace and being different made her an easy target for the press to prey on.

The press never forgave her for the break up of The Beatles, but Paul McCartney was later quoted as saying about Yoko Ono: "She certainly didn't break the group up", he went on to say about her; "The group was breaking up and I think she attracted John so much to another way of life that he then went on to, very successfully, add a sort of second part to his career, writing things like 'Imagine' and 'Give Peace a Chance'. I don't think he would have done that without Yoko".

Well, not just an influence because in 2017 she was finally recognised as the co-writer with Lennon of the 1971 epic hit 'Imagine'. Maybe her artistic recognition is finally giving her the due credit she fully deserves. Art apart, she was good for a one liner also, so here is my compilation of 25 of the best Yoko Ono quotes

Quotes About Yoko Ono

The freelance writer Chal Ravens reflecting history finally finding its way, said: "Ono wouldn’t be given a songwriting credit on Imagine until 2017, but by 1971 she had already become the most significant artistic influence on Lennon since Chuck Berry"

John Lennon put her influence into perspective: "I learned everything from her ... It is a teacher-pupil relationship. That's what people don't understand. She's the teacher and I'm the pupil. I'm the famous one, the one who's supposed to know everything, but she's my teacher"

John Lennon also tellingly called her: "the world’s most famous unknown artist"

The artistic director John McGrath described her thus: "One of the things she always said is that peace isn’t absence of war – peace is a thing that you have to do, together"

The critic Nadja Sayej shared this assessment: "She fought her way through a male-dominated art world in the 1960s, but has always used her art as a vehicle for peace advocacy and activism, whether it was her bed-in peace protest with Lennon or her Artists Against Fracking project she co-founded with her son Sean Lennon in 2012"


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