Quotes from Yoko Ono

Great Art is Great because it inspired you greatly. If it didn't, no matter what the critics, the museums and the galleries say, it's not great art for you.

Performance art is going to be the future. Plays on Broadway are so restricted. But performance art is like haikus, just one line thing. And it's more casual but more interesting.

Art is like breathing for me. If I don't do it, I start to choke.

I never went to art school and I never thought of going to an art school. It was just a way of manifesting these ideas I had. Ideas came to me that I needed to express.

I never thought, "I'm going to be an artist". When I actually began to become successful in the art world I made it a point to say, 'I am a dilettante, I am not a professional artist", which is true.

Art for me is like breathing. When I stop breathing, what happens?

Artists are magicians and I definitely think John Lennon was a Wizard.

When people don't understand my work, I don't feel like explaining.

The art world was not initially really accepting my kind of work. I was ahead of my time.

I never want projects to be finished; I have always believed in unfinished work. I got that from Schubert, you know, the 'Unfinished Symphony.'

I don't work for a long time on anything. I don't have too much time in life.

You can't always measure the effects of activist work; you just have to wish and pray that the message gets through.

We don't live by just sleeping and eating. We need pride and dignity in our lives. Work gives you that.

There is an incredible love in creating art unless somebody is saying, 'Hey, let's just make money,' because it doesn't work when you do it that way. If you are aiming for that, forget it.

My work was not embraced for many decades. I would have killed myself if getting embraced affected me so much.

Events are the best teacher for us. You try to learn from people, there is always some bend to it.

Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence. Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance. Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence. Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance.

You may think I'm small, but I have a universe inside my mind.

Each time we don't say what we wanna say, we're dying.

Some people are old at 18 and some are young at 90. Time is a concept that humans created.

We're all water from different rivers, That's why it's so easy to meet, We're all water in this vast, vast ocean, Someday we'll evaporate together.

Use your blood to paint. Keep painting until you faint. Keep painting until you die.

It's better to dance than to march through life.

I saw that nothing was permanent. You don't want to possess anything that is dear to you because you might lose it