Yoko Ono

"I've always said that I use my voice as an instrument. It was something I created myself, and I said, 'Have voice, will travel.'"

"I just want to be healthy and stay alive and keep my family going and everything and keep my friends going and try to do something so that this world will be peaceful. That is the most ambitious and the most difficult thing, but I'm there trying to do it."

"I see so many activists... who are artists because they feel that they have the power of communication."

"I think there is a big difference between the music business and music. And my relationship is to music, not music business. I think the business will keep changing, but music won't. Music will be there."

"I'm free from holding personal anger because I can express what I want through my music."

"People think that their world will get smaller as they get older. My experience is just the opposite. Your senses become more acute. You start to blossom."

"The computer is my favourite invention. I feel lucky to be part of the global village. I don't mean to brag, but I'm so fast with technology. People think it all seems too much, but we'll get used to it. I'm sure it all seemed too much when we were learning to walk."

"The universe, when you leave it alone, is going to be beautiful."

"The whole world is starting to realize that it was the most unwise thing for our society to have ignored women power, to run the society with male priorities."

"To have a relationship that is pure and passionate and beautiful - I think people are scared of having that now. Especially guys."

"We live too long for one marriage."

"What the Beatles did was something incredible, it was more than what a band could do. We have to give them respect."

"When I was four years old, my mother put me into a school for early music education where you get perfect pitch and harmony and composition."

"When I'm putting some communication out on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram, I think that it's helping me, my brain, you know, because it's always somehow stimulated by people who are sending things to me. And it works both ways. It's great. My brain is very happy about it."

"When you go through a negative situation, don't think about it. Make it positive."

"Women are put in a position of feeling embarrassed about their bodies. It's so ridiculous, but also astounding - we have to always be apologetic about having created the human race."

"Women have become stronger, and there's a backlash. Men have become terribly possessive. I find it much easier to get on with women."