From Bill Harry's The Book of Lennon

John Lennon on Brian Epstein:

"We were in a daydream 'til he came along. We'd no idea what we were doing. Seeing our marching orders on paper made it all official. Brian was trying to clean our image up."

"He said we'd never get past the door of a good place. He'd tell us that jeans were not particularly smart and could we possibly manage to wear proper trousers. But he didn't want us suddenly looking square. He let us have our own sense of individuality. We respected his views."

"Epstein fronted for The Beatles and he played a great part in whatever we did. He was theatrical - that was for sure. And he believed in us. But he certainly didn't package us the way they say he packaged us. He was good at his job, but to an extent he wasn't the greatest businessman. He was theatrical and he believed."

"I liked Brian and I had a very close relationship with him for years, because I'm not gonna have some stranger running things, that's all. I like to work with friends. We had complete faith in him when he was running us. To us, he was the expert. I mean originally, he had a shop. Anybody who's got a shop must be all right. He went around smarmin' and charmin' everybody. He had hellish tempers and fits and lock-outs, and y'know he'd vanish for days. He'd come to a crisis every now and then and the whole business would stop."

Brian Epstein died of an accidental overdose of drugs on August 27, 1967. He was buried in Liverpool at Long Lane Cemetery on August 29.