John Lennon had felt during his youth that "love had been the answer", and had written "The Word" as his "first expression" of the concept. He had felt that love was an "underlying theme of the universe", and that love was fundamental in many things, which had inspired the lyric "In the good and bad books that I have read".[3] The song is credited to Lennon-McCartney, however Lennon had stated that it was "mainly mine".[4] It had marked the first time the Beatles had written a song about love as a concept, which would become important in the band's later work.[5][6]