Yoko Ono Quotes

I wasn't smart enough to read relationship books when I was coming up. I learned everything the hard way.

When people disappoint you, it's just as much your responsibility to be aware of it and what you don't want.

Whenever I'm talking about relationships, it's always at least three things. It's my relationship with myself, my relationship with God or an idea, and then usually somebody, a real person. I try to operate on all three levels at the same time, and it's difficult, but I never want to have a break-up song or something like that.

It's easier to write from my own life, and it's also more fun. I always write about relationships, for instance, whether they're romantic relationships, friendships, encounters... there's always a lesson to be learned from them.

I'm not a terrible person, I know that, but sometimes in a relationship, I can be crappy.

Each relationship nurtures a strength or weakness within you.

Remember that no relationship is a total waste of time. You can always learn something about yourself.

I'm terrible at relationships. I consider myself to be smart and a good mother but it's taken me this long to realise you don't have to marry a guy after three days or dump him.

If we look honestly at our relationships, we can see so much about how we have created them.

I don't think any one person is the cause of all of someone else's problems.

Without really trying to, I've become a sort of jailhouse lawyer of relationships - someone who's had to do so much work on her own case that I can now help you with yours.

I don't like getting people upset, so that's not my goal. But I like putting people in situations where how they respond says a lot about them.

I was in a band in Auckland, and I remember they all hated me. They had a big intervention. They said, basically, 'Gin, we think you suck.' I was miserable. I cried and cried. But looking back, that taught me about social skills and how to communicate with musicians.

If you're upset by something I said, you have bigger problems than you think.

I am known predominantly for dealing with people's relationships.

I'm interested in how we understand ourselves in our relatioships and how we define ourselves.

When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and arguments. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding.

Countless mistakes in marriage, parenting, ministry, and other relationships are failures to balance grace and truth. Sometimes we neglect both. Often we choose one over the other.

I don't know how you can understand other people or yourself if you haven't read a lot of books. I just don't think you're equipped to deal with the demands and decisions of life, particularly in your dealings with other people.

I've had to relearn how I work with people so that if and when I do avoid different things I don't send any messages in doing so.

I was never very mature in my relationships with women. First sign of conflict, I was gone.

To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.

I'm a private person by nature. I live in my brain half the time, not the world, and I'm not a natural negotiator. But I've learned to negotiate.

After years of doing it, you learn the difference between your ego and your opinion. When you're married you have to cut through that.

When you're in a relationship you want it to work. My parents did, I did. But we are not taught how to make it work.