Ringo Starr

The Beatles were just four guys that loved each other. That’s all they’ll ever be.
– Ringo Starr

Everything government touches turns to crap.
– Ringo Starr

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

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

– Do you date much?
– What are you doing tonight?
– Ringo Starr

I’ve had enough of the royal family. ’bout time they went on holiday and stayed there.
– Ringo Starr

I met The Beatles while we were playing in Germany. We’d seen them in Liverpool, but they
were a nothing little band then, just putting it together. In fact, they weren’t really a band at
all.
– Ringo Starr

Of course I’m ambitious. What’s wrong with that? Otherwise you sleep all day.
– Ringo Starr

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.
– Ringo Starr

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.
– Ringo Starr

America: It’s like Britain, only with buttons.
– Ringo Starr

– How do you find America?
– Turn left at Greenland.
– Ringo Starr, 1964

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.
– Ringo Starr

I got involved with a lot of different medications, and you can listen to my records go downhill
as the amount of medication went up.
– Ringo Starr

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.
– Ringo Starr

And in a marriage you can’t try and be married. You’re married or you’re not married.
– Ringo Starr

I like Beethoven, especially the poems.
– Ringo Starr

I used to wish that I could write songs, like the others; and I’ve tried, but I just can’t.
– Ringo Starr

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.”
– Ringo Starr

Well I’m getting happier all the time, which is very nice.
– Ringo Starr

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.
– Ringo Starr

Let us see them do something good for Britain. Build a hospital. And that Diana memorial? It’s
such a lot of crap. She deserved more than that, in my opinion.
– Ringo Starr

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. I
believe Paul’s got everything he ever had, but I lost a lot of mine.
– Ringo Starr

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.
– Ringo Starr

That’s all drugs and alcohol do, they cut off your emotions in the end.
– Ringo Starr

I never studied anything, really. I didn’t study the drums. I joined bands and made all the
mistakes on stage.
– Ringo Starr

The saddest part is that, years and years later, we found out that Elvis Presley tried to have
us banished from America, because he was very big with the FBI. That’s very sad to me, that
he felt so threatened that he thought, like a lot of people, that we were bad for American
youth. This is Mr. Hips, the man, and he felt we were a danger. I think that the danger was
mainly to him and his career.
– Ringo Starr

I’m not a violent man, but I was getting violent. It was just painful, waking up in the morning
and finding yourself drinking again.
– Ringo Starr

The second side of Abbey Road is my favorite.
– Ringo Starr

That was a great time. I was in my 20s, had lots of energy. I have great memories of it.
– Ringo Starr

I do believe that the Vatican have better things to deal with than forgiving the Beatles.
– Ringo Starr

George was getting a lot of independence for himself in those days. He was writing more, and
wanted things to go his way, where, when we first started things basically went John and
Paul’s way. You know, ‘cuz they were the writers.
– Ringo Starr

You know I’m not very good at singing because I haven’t got a great range. So they write
songs for me that are pretty low and not too hard.
– Ringo Starr

I started to be an engineer but I banged me thumb on the first day. I became a drummer
because it was the only thing I could do. But whenever I hear another drummer I know I’m no
good.
– Ringo Starr

– Sorry to interupt you while you are eating, but what do you think you will be doing in five
years time, when all this is over?
– Still eating.
– Ringo Starr

We did have big fights, but we still loved each other. We split up, and it was about time. But
there was still lots of contact.
– Ringo Starr

I love golf now. But it’s more addictive than cocaine.
– Ringo Starr

As friends, as musicians, we had a lot of time together. Actually, we didn’t have a lot of years
in a band – eight. But we had a lifetime in those eight years.
– Ringo Starr

The main thing is, I don’t ever want to go back to work.
– Ringo Starr

I mean, women are very important to me. I don’t know, they just drive me crazy.
– Ringo Starr

Meditation is a break from thinking. The benefits to me are quieting my mind and soul down.
– Ringo Starr

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.
– Ringo Starr

I’m not sleeping with all the women I appear with.
– Ringo Starr

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.
– Ringo Starr

I’m probably the best rock ‘n’ roll drummer on earth. I say that now because I used to be
embarrassed to speak up for myself.
– Ringo Starr