“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.”

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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 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.

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.

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

Peace and love, peace and love!

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

Fondest memory of being a Beatle: Having three brothers.

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.

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