QUESTION: Why did you leave the Maharishi?
JOHN: We made a mistake.
QUESTION: Do you think other people are making a mistake as well?
JOHN: That's up to them. We're human.
QUESTION: What do you mean, you made a mistake?
JOHN: That's all, you know.
PAUL: We thought there was more to him than there was, but he's human and for awhile we thought he wasn't.
QUESTION: Could you tell us about your newest coporate business venture [Apple]?
JOHN: It's a business concerning records, films, and electronics and, as a sideline, manufacturing or whatever. We want to set up a system whereby people who just want to make a film about anything don't have to go on their knees in somebody's office, probably yours.
PAUL: We really want to help people, but without doing it like charity or seeming like ordinary patrons of the arts. I mean, we're in the happy position of not really needing any more money, so for the first time, the bosses aren't in it for the profit. If you come to see me and say, "I've had such and such a dream," I will say, "Here's so much money. Go away and do it." We've already brought all our dreams, so now we want to share that possibility with others. There's no desire in any of our heads to take over the world. That was Hitler. There is, however, a desire to get the power in order to use it for the good.
JOHN: The aim of this company isn't really a stack of gold teeth in the bank. We've done that bit. It's more of a trick to see if we can actually get artistic freedom within a business structure, to see if we can create nice things and sell them without charging three times our cost.
QUESTION: How will you run your new company?
JOHN: There's people we can get to do that. We don't know anything about business.