Emily Cole 
[quote]And, in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.[/quote]
The Beatles weren’t officially done until Paul McCartney went solo in 1970. George Harrison and John Lennon were the first to release solo albums, followed by Ringo Starr towards the end of 1968.
By the year of Mccartney’s release, a statement followed saying he was “breaking with the beatles”. It was official at that point: one of the greatest bands of all time would never quite be the same.
Here, we celebrate some of the most memorable lyrics and quotes from the man himself over his storied career.
- 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
- She’s lovely, great. She was very friendly. She was just like a mum to us. – Paul McCartney
- I used to think anyone doing anything weird was weird. Now I know that it is the people that call others weird that are weird. – Paul McCartney
- We probably seem to be anti-religious…none of us believes in God.– Paul McCartney
- Somebody said to me, ‘But the Beatles were antimaterialistic’. That’s a huge myth. John and I literally used to sit down and say, ‘Now, let’s write a swimming pool’. – Paul McCartney
- Criticism didn’t really stop us and it shouldn’t ever stop anyone, because critics are only the people who can’t get a record deal themselves. – Paul McCartney
- None of us wanted to be the bass player. In our minds he was the fat guy who always played at the back. – Paul McCartney
- 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
- I don’t work at being ordinary. – Paul McCartney
- There are only four people who knew what the Beatles were about anyway. – Paul McCartney
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- What a f******* great band we were. – Paul McCartney
- John’s time and effort were, in the main, spent on pretty honourable stuff. As for the other side, well, nobody’s perfect, nobody’s Jesus. And look what they did to him. – Paul McCartney
- 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
- Everybody at EMI had become part of the furniture. I’d be a couch; Coldplay are an armchair. Robbie Williams, I dread to think what he was. – Paul McCartney
- But with writers, there’s nothing wrong with melancholy. It’s an important colour in writing. – Paul McCartney
16. Being in the audience actually looks like quite a lot of fun. – Paul McCartney
17. Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they’re here to stay. Oh, I believe in yesterday. – Paul McCartney
18. My grandkids always beat me at [the video game] Rock Band. And I say, Listen, you may beat me at Rock Band, but I made the original records, so shut up. – Paul McCartney
19. Why would I retire? Sit at home and watch TV? No thanks. I’d rather be out playing. – Paul McCartney
20. It was Elvis who really got me hooked on beat music. When I heard Heartbreak Hotel I thought, this is it. – Paul McCartney
21. I think people who create and write, it actually does flow – just flows from into their head, into their hand, and they write it down. It’s simple. – Paul McCartney
22. If children are studying the 20th century, I’m in their text books. – Paul McCartney
23. 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
24. You know, as a kid I would have thought of a vegetarian as a wimp. – Paul McCartney
25. With life and all I’ve been through, I do have a belief in goodness, a good spirit. I think what people have done with religion is personified good and evil, so good’s become God with ‘o’ out, and evil’s become Devil with a ‘d’ added. That’s my theory of religion. – Paul McCartney
There you have it, our favourite Paul McCartney quotes and lyrics. Make sure to check out our other Beatles themed collections below and let us know if we missed anything.
Beatles Quotes: The Most Witty, Questionable and Insightful Lyrics and Lines
23 Incredible John Lennon Quotes on Life, Love and Peace
The 20 Best Ringo Starr Quotes on Love and Peace
George Harrison Quotes: The 20 Best Lyrics on Life and Music
header image via: Corwin
