Born on September 24, 1941, Linda McCartney was a photographer before she met and married her famous husband, Paul McCartney of the Beatles. Together, they were very close and deeply in love, Paul’s salvation when the Beatles broke up.
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Linda passed away in 1998 at the age of 56. A staunch animal rights activist, Linda played music with Paul, writing the album, Ram and co-founding Wings. With all that experience, one might wonder what Linda has to say about her life, her crafts and the world at large. Below, we uncover the 20 best Linda McCartney quotes.
1. “I had daydreams and fantasies when I was growing up. I always wanted to live in a log cabin at the foot of a mountain. I would ride my horse to town and pick up provisions. Then return to the cabin, with a big open fire, a record player and peace.”
2. “My mother was killed in a plane crash, so I hate traveling in planes. Death is so unexpected. I would actually rather stay at home and not go anywhere.”
3. “I don’t need a lot of money. Simplicity is the answer for me.”
4. “Paul persuaded me to join the band. I would never have had the courage otherwise. It was fun at the beginning. We were playing just for fun, with Paul’s group.”
5. “He is not in the least arrogant. The last album was written in a room in Sussex. He was like a mad professor, spending all day writing and then coming out with brilliant tunes.”
6. “He is a terrible planner, though. So am I.”
7. “We spent last night listening to Liverpool football team on the radio, wanting them to win so badly. Paul supports Liverpool. He was Everton for a while because of his family—but it’s all Liverpool now.”
8. “We spend so much time together because that’s how we like it. I never used to go on girls’ nights out, even at school. And Paul has never liked going out for a night with the boys, either.”
9. “I wasn’t looking for another marriage. I had been married before. He is a nice man—a geologist, an Ernest Hemingway type. But Paul and I married because of convention.”
10. “We are really on top of one another at the moment and I think it is amazing how we stay so close. Maybe that’s the test. Why not totally put yourself together, rather than always wonder whether you actually like each other?”
11. “If slaughterhouses had glass walls the whole world would be vegetarian.”
12. “We think we want to do something and when it comes to it, we don’t. We don’t like to commit.”
13. “I would travel only by horse if I had the choice.”
14. “When I first toured with Wings things that were said about me were true—I did sing out of tune.”
15. “We both came from families in which parents got married, had children and the whole thing. So we were not the kind of people to live together permanently.”
16. “When Paul was arrested in Japan for having hash in his luggage, I thought he’d be out that night. But it became really serious stuff when he was kept in a cell. I became more fearful as the days went by.”
17. “I think hard drugs are disgusting. But I must say, I think marijuana is pretty lightweight.”
18. “I spend a lot of time in our kitchen. I find it the coziest, friendliest place in the house. It’s not something my American upbringing prepared me for, but now that I live in England, it’s become very important to me.”
19. “When I married Paul, we lived in St John’s Wood in London. We had nice next-door neighbors, but you don’t know anyone else. Everyone lives in isolation.”
20. “We have lasted this long close together, so we must have something going for each other.”
Photo by Reg Lancaster/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
