Michka: I'm about to hire him (Adam) as a landscape gardener. I know he loves nature...We have heard about this man, Adam Clayton. We know you've worked with him a lot. So do you think he might fit the job?
Bono: Well the first thing I'd say to you is: you want a very, very big budget. And be prepared to spend as much on the garden as you have on the property and on the house. Because, for him, the four walls are not half as interesting as what's outside of them. He sees the garden as God's furniture, and tends to it in a very meticulous way. He will never be seen running in your garden. He will frustrate the rest of the staff by how long it takes him to trim the hedge. But when you stand back, you will see some great and unexpected shapes in the hedge. He moves very slowly, but he'll build a bridge over the river that runs through it, even if he won't use a regular stonemason and he'll use a sculptor.
Michka: Excuse me sir, but that's pretty worrying. You're telling me he's going to be very expensive and that he won't finish on schedule. I'm afraid I'm not going to hire him.
Bono: Very expensive, won't finish on schedule. Every artisan will be an artist. And it's only when you realize you have no more money left in the bank and you have to sell the place that it will dawn on you that this property is now worth ten times what you put into it. Nothing he does dates, except his hair.
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"at the end of the 80's...a refreshed then-editor or Smash Hits pop gazette sallied up to Adam and said something completely idiotic. The bassman curled a lip, champagne glass aloft, and said in the poshest voice imaginable, "Clear aaawf!!!" for years thereafter he was known to a nation of pop people as Adam 'Clear off' Clayton. Hahaha! explodes Adam, rolling around the sofa, "clear aaawf! hahaaha! My goodness! My gosh. Well...I certainly don't remember." From an interview in 2000.
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"Radio should be stimulating people rather than actually killing them into a state of apathy, which I think has happened. Again, it goes back to this thing of partitioning music. People, particularly the youth, which are the lifeblood of any country, are stagnating because they have no stimulus. There's nothing challenging for them to get their teeth into. I think that's a terrible shame." (this is from the 80's too)