Bono Quotes?

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The Maestro

The Fly
Joined
Jun 7, 2002
Messages
179
Not sure if this is the right place to ask this..if not apologies.

Anyone know where i can find some quotes from the great man?

Just looking for some for my signature etc.

Cheers:bono:
 
If you cant find yer Bono quote out of this lot.....ill be surprised:


ON THE BAND "Actually '78 was a really exciting time for U2. We had just discovered F sharp minor. So we had the fourth chord and we'd only had three up to then." Bono on the days when U2 truly were a three chord wonder.

I think that Edge is the head of the band, I'm the heart, and Adam and Larry are the feet. - Bono, 1981

I don't mean to be arrogant, but ...I do feel that we are meant to be one of the great groups. - Bono, Rolling Stone, 1981

"People say we take ourselves too seriously and I might have to plead guilty to that. But I don't take myself seriously, we don't take ourselves seriously - but we do take the music seriously." Bono tries to shed his serious image, August 1983.

I had the loudest mouth. When we formed the group, I was the lead guitar player, singer and songwriter. Nobody talked back at first. But then they talked me out of being lead guitar player and into being the rhythm guitar player and into just being the singer. And then they tried to talk me out of being the singer and into being the manager. But I held on to that. Arrogance may have been the reason. - Bono, 1983

Everyone argues, then we do what I say. - Bono, March 1987

We spent a lot of the '80s ducking and bobbing and weaving, running from the ghosts of things that really weren't so scary after all. We were scared the business would overtake us; we were scared of the nonsense. I think we held onto the music too tightly. But now we've learned to laugh at it all and find fun in everything, because there is a ridiculous side to rock 'n' roll, and you just have to learn to live with it. - Bono, New York Times, March 1992

"I'd like to give a message to the young people of America, and that is; we shall continue to abuse our position and fuck up the mainstream." (Said on the '94 Grammy's

A lot of rock 'n' roll is banal; ideas well executed. Whereas I think a lot of what we do is really very interesting ideas, badly executed. - Bono, 1996

The band was strong on Pop. This is not a personality crisis. This is us growing into other areas. And we won't have our knuckles rapped for that. That is the very thing that is keeping us alive and the reason why, as a group, love us or hate us, we're still on an incline. It's stasis that kills you off in the end, not ambition. - Bono, 1997

"There are four members of U2. If there is a fifth non-musical member, it is Paul McGuiness. Either that or Adam's willie!"

We will play in South Africa, South America and so. We are open to anybody. We would also play at weddings and funerals .. Bono, Mannheim 1997 on German TV

"I can't quite remember whose idea it was. All I know is that Larry looked like some kind of porn star. Edge looked like his sister Jill, I looked like Barbara Bush and Adam hasn't taken the dress off. Bono on dressing up in drag for the One video

"We still have the same ideals; we've just learned to look like we don't." - Bono at K-Mart

"I thought that the spirit of the group was a bit hesistant, I could see people were a bit freaked. But I quite like that. I actually quite like the fact that there was a little bit of -- certainly from the band -- the rabbit in the headlights. I think that's okay because it is rock 'n' roll. It's not fu--in' Broadway."

"There's Belgians making our underwear, actually great underwear. This guy Walt is a genuis. He's the man. He's kicking Gaultier's butt. He's like a Hell's Angels guy and he has great underwear he's designed. And on the front of them it says, `F-- the past,' and on the back, `Kiss the future.' I dread to think what was going on in Walt's mind when he came up with that, but for me it's a great statement about where we're at."

"The first night Edge was in a cloud of dry ice when he got out of the lemon and I couldn't see him, but I knew he wasn't playing his guitar when he should have been. And I didn't know what to do exactly. And then I just heard this giggling. He was laughing his head off. I caught him through the fog. There is just a smidgen of (Spinal Tap's) Derek Smalls about him at the moment. But listen, that's balls. Brazen hussies we are. There's not another rock band in the world -- maybe because they're too smart to -- who would dare to do that. And I'm telling ya, that's it for me."

"We were playing in a ballroom in Washington, just rehearsing without anyone around, even our road crew had gone, and they're such a band. They are the sh--. This is a great group and we've been in this since we were boys and it's like I'm still amazed on one level that we haven't been found out. But when I was in the ballroom, like I was the other day, with them, I think it's actually real. We can actually play."

"It took U2 fifteen years to get from Psalms to Ecclesiastes, and it's only one book!"

"This is great, isn't it? We travel the world, don't have to shoot people, get to play rock'n'roll, and we get paid for it."

"There's something we've had to fight for in the group, and it's there. It's a real love of each other and love of what we do, and it's a flame. There's times when it feels like it's nearly been blown out, but it's there."

"Let's be the band that loves its music and the people that are attracted to its music. And even the ones that aren't, maybe, as well."

"It was like four blind kids blustering away and there was the evidence of just a little light in the corner and we started to work towards that. And the light was getting clearer. Right now it's like standing in the daylight as far as I'm concerned."

"I'm the most likely to say what I'm thinking and lose it. But Larry is the what can I say about Larry...he started the group and polices it in an interesting way and Adam is the conscience in an odd way."

"[When asked "Don't you ever wish you were a band they were after for your sex appeal"? (as opposed to their social conscience etc)] Yeah well were working on that at the moment, were gonna become a sorta trash band. We were just saying we could get into wrecking a few hotel rooms and driving a few Rolls Royce's into swimming pools."

"I have to say there is a side of me that cant quite work out why anyone would buy a U2 LP. I think I might buy one?.it's the same as I feel about a U2 concert. I mean I've never been to a U2 concert. I've been at one but never to one! (Bono, soon after this comment, actually got to attend a U2 "concert" during the premiers of Rattle and Hum)"

"(during a radio interview...the interviewer says "that?s where we are going to have to leave it cause there are more important things on the wireless than you. Bono, Edge, Adam, Larry- (at this point bono cuts him off with...)Mark, I doubt it!"

"The name U2 is ambiguous, it's in-between... like the tightrope that we're treading."

"We had megalomania from a very early age."

"We leaked it. That's what you do if you're in a rock'n'roll band."

"We don't have to do anything we don't want to do [musically]. That's independence."

"I feel that we are meant to be one of the great groups. There's a certain chemistry that was special about the Stones, The Who and The Beatles and I think it's also special about U2." October 1981

"We don't allow people to make jokes in our company. Anyone on the crew who's ever seen with a smile on their faces we let go." May 1985

"What has kept us together? Fear of our manager!" February 1987

"We broke up the band after 'War'. We literally broke up the band and formed another band with the same name and the same members. That's what we did. We had all those teething problems that you have when you start a new band." January 1985

"What other band in our position would learn the chords of 'All Along The Watchtower' five minutes before they went on-stage, play it live and record it? No one." October 1988

"We have to be great or we're going to break up and kill each other."

"There's something we've had to fight for in the group, and it's there. It's a real love of each other and love of what we do, and it's a flame. There's times when it feels like it's nearly been blown out, but it's there."

"Let's be the band that loves its music and the people that are attracted to its music. And even the ones that aren't, maybe, as well."

"It was like four blind kids blustering away and there was the evidence of just a little light in the corner and we started to work towards that. And the light was getting clearer. Right now it's like standing in the daylight as far as I'm concerned."

"I'm the most likely to say what I'm thinking and lose it. But Larry is the what can I say about Larry..he started the group and polices it in an interesting way and Adam is the conscience in an odd way."

"The Berlin session was racked a mixture of creative divisions, personal tensions, and an abiding sense of dislocation."

"The whole point of it all is that you're just trying to keep yourself interested really. Its not that conscious a plan, yknow, we may portray it that way with hindsight but its not a very conscious thing, yknow, you just try and make music which keeps you interested. And, so, whatever youre listening to, it influences you in some way and you kind of regurgitate it and it comes out as U2. I think, Id like to think that over the last, whatever it is, ten, fifteen years weve been around as a band that our music has always changed."

"I think we were probably the worst rock n roll stars there ever was."

"It was a combination of four individuals who, apart from the band, were totally different as personalities."

"Our main influences in the group are each other. They're not outside. The most powerful music is created naturally, is not forced at all. It just comes out."

"If people come along expecting the world from U2, then they're gonna get it. I'm not scared that we won't be able to give it to them."

"I want to replace the bands in the charts now, because I think we're better."

"My position is that I write songs, I'm in a band and I hope that when it's all over for U2, that in some way we made the light a bit brighter. Maybe just tear off a corner of the darkness."

BP: Do you ever wish you were Edge/Larry/Adam?
Bono: The bass is the hippest instrument in rock 'n roll, the drums are the most exciting. I want to play the guitar very badly and I do play the guitar very badly.

From the book BONO IN HIS OWN WORDS:
"There was a night in L.A. in the early part of the tour when we had a death threat that the police were taking very seriously indeed. Someone had sent the gun license into the U2 offices and they thought he had gotten into the venue. All of a sudden there were all these people on the stage which I really objected to. I never thought that sort of thing would bother me and, when I went out, it didn't. I just laughed it off, like The Blues Brothers - 'We're on a mission from God and we ain't finished yet.' The second night came up and the cops came up to us just before we were about to go on and said they'd made a mistake, He was coming tonight! "Now we get all kinds of racist jibes because we wrote a song for Martin Luther King, or pinko jibes because we did the Amnesty International Tour. Wherever you look we're a target for the loony fringe. So the second night, we're on stage and I'm singing 'Pride' thinking, 'If someone is going to do it, it will be during this number.' So I crouched down on the stage, shut my eyes and for a moment the thought of death crossed my mind. When I looked up I just saw Adam standing over me, between me and the crowd. It was a good, good moment."

ON SONG WRITING / BEING AN ARTIST I have never tried to write this thing called a song that's played on radios all around the world, that window-cleaners hum, that people listen to in traffic jams. I was never interested in song: U2 came about through a sound. Bono on his song writing style (or the lack of it).

There's a point where you find yourself tiptoeing as an artist, and then you know that you're in the wrong place. It's like you have a rule book, but you don't remember where you got it. - Bono

"I've found that there's enough subject matter in my heart to keep me going."

I have this idea in my head, just to write as if you're dead...'cos when you're dead, you know, you don't care what people think and just go and say what you have to say" Bono - obviously having plans for life after death ...

"I didn't really begin spending a lot of time on lyrics until halfway into the Eighties." September 1993

"What I like most about being in a band is the feeling of writing a song, one day it doesn?t exist, the next day it does exist, then you make it into a record, then the record is played on the radio all over the world, and then you go to some far off place, and you come in in the airport and you hear your song on the radio, and that?s a really special feeling; that kind of pays your wages more than anything."

"You?re intimidated by the process of recording when you start out. I remember I used to go home, I was 19 or 20 at the time when we were making Boy, and I was living with my father. I would come home at three or four in the morning and I?d sneak up the stairs because I didn?t want to wake him up cause he?d be in a bad mood. And he?d wake up and he?d say 'what are you doing, what time is it?', and I?d say 'it's 1:00' and he?d say 'how long have you been working on that record?', and I?d say 'a week' and he'd say 'and how long is the record?' I said ?40 minutes? and he said ?geez, have you not got it right yet?"

"When we put that together it was just a situation; we were on stage. Adam plugged his guitar in and he put the strap around his neck. And he and Larry just in a moment, were playing what is the root notes to the song. And I began to sing over it, and I was playing the guitar at the time, and Edge started to contribute. And at the end of a 5/7 minute period the song was complete, in all it?s entirety: the melodies, verse, chorus, solo?complete. And when we stopped, some people around there were all asking about this, and I said I have my tape recorder and I got it here. So everyone came around and I said ?look I think this is, this is??, I pressed the button, buzzzzz, the batteries were flat. And I had to go at a later date, I had to decipher the white noise. And then we worked the song in."

"You have no choice of subject matter. You write what's in your heart and on your mind unless of course it's crap in which case it means you've thought about it too much."

ON ROCK N ROLL / MUSIC
"Rock and roll albums are not selling at the moment. And there's a reason for that -- they're boring."

"Rock and Roll Stops the Traffic" Graffiti which Bono wrote on a statue in San Francisco during the "Save The Yuppy" concert in 1987. (For which he was subsequently arrested)

?Rock & roll is mutating into something else at the moment... Images are everything, and we want to be there when the sort of audiovisual-microchip-interactive music is born.? - Bono

One of the greatest contradictions of rock 'n' roll is that it's very personal, private music made on a huge public address system. - Bono

It would be wrong for me to say, "Yes, we can change the world with a song" -but every time I try writing, that's where I'm at. I'm not stupid. I'm aware of the futility of rock 'n' roll music. But I'm also aware of it's power. - Bono

There are many side roads and back streets to rock 'n' roll, and most of us get lost down them at times. But I found Keith to be very much on the main road. He was still in love with music. You can see that all his infamy and fortune don't matter much to him. When he puts on the guitar, lines disappear from his face. - Bono, on Keith Richards

Sex and music are still for me places where you glimpse God. Sex and art, I suppose, but unless you're going to get slain in the spirit by a Warhol or Rothko, I think for most of us art is music. - Bono

"There's a lot of bullshit in rock and roll, but some of the bullshit is pretty cool."

Sadomasochism is not taboo in rock & roll. Spirituality is. - Bono, 1985

Edge, for a minute I heard that awful word in my head....progressive rock.....but only for a second. Bono Bullet the Blue Sky 1997

Rock & roll is ridiculous. It's absurd. In the past, U2 was trying to duck that. But now we're wrapping our arms around it and giving it a great big hug. - Bono, 1998

God is in the room more than Elvis. It feels like there's a blessing on the band right now. ... In the end, music is a kind of sacrament; it's not just about airplay and chart position. - Bono, Rolling Stone, May 10, 2001

"Rock and roll is ridiculous. I mean, it's funny: four jerks and a police escort" - Bono

"We may lose the pop kids, but we don't need them" - Bono

"The Nineties demand a very different response than the Eighties. If they see you coming with a play card, they duck. They close the doors and pull down the blinds, go back to watching a game show. We have to outsmart the ones without heart."

"When this bogus term alternative rock was being thrown at every seventies retro rehash folk group, we were challenging people to new sonic ideas. If some little snotty anarchist with an Apple Mac and an attitude thinks he invented dance music and the big rock group is coming into his territory, [that's] ridiculous."

"Hmmmmmmm they got balls, bats, spiky shoes, they might be a rock&roll band"

"We're going to take rock & roll into the future."

"The whole business of being in a rock & roll band is just ridiculous. I was thinking, it's like having a sex change! Being a rock & roll star is like having a sex change! People treat you like a girl! You know? They stare at you, they follow you down the street, the hustle you. And then they try to fuck you over! It's a hard thing to talk about because it's absurd, but actually its valuable. When I'm with women I know what it feels like. I know what it feels like to be a babe." - Bono 1992

"The Bee Gees. Equal to Abba, perhaps even superior. 'Tragedy' is genius."

"Rock 'n' Roll Is Entertainment -- Over One Billion Served."

Rock and roll gives people a chance not to grow up. It puts them in a glass case and protects them from the real world of where they're gonna get their next meal. Bono

"The difference between pop and rock'n'roll is that the pop star gets the nose job."

"The world of rock'n'roll is as black as a mine but you could find a jewel down there to make it all worthwhile."

?Rock and roll albums are not selling at the moment. And there's a reason for that -- they're boring."

"Rock & roll is ridiculous. It's absurd. In the past, U2 was trying to duck that. But now we're wrapping our arms around it and giving it a great big hug."

"The truth is when that singer is saying something that comes from right down within him, and it affects you right down within you. That's when you start talking about great music, as distinct from nice music."

ON CONCERTS / LIVE PERFORMANCE / TOURING
Everybody keeps throwing their shoes up on stage. I mean, what is this? There's no business like shoe-business? Bono, San Francisco 7 March 1985

"We don't allow people to make jokes in our company. Anyone on the crew who's ever seen with a smile on their faces we let go." Bono, May 1985

I come from the position that 50.000 people gathered might not be wrong. In fact, if they're gathered together at one of our gigs, I'm tempted to think they might be right! Bono

"The music seemed too big for McGonagles. We wanted to blow the roof off. I always felt like that. We needed to find a bigger place to play even if there weren't any people there... just to fit the music in?. Bono on the limitations of early U2 venues, November 1988.

"It was like Apocalypse Now without so many helicopters." Bono summing up the feel of the Arizona concert in the Rattle and Hum movie, 1989

Security, get off my stage! This is MY stage! Bono, Las Vegas 1992

Dianne: "That beautiful Irish song that opens the show, could you tell me what that is?" "I don't know," Bono answered. "I make it up every time." Bono, 1992

"Welcome to ZooTV! We've got the latest in hardware, software, and menswear!"

"The strangest thing has happened. I really missed my dog. That's never
happened to me before. You know, on a long tour you do hear people saying
they miss their pets. I never have. But last night I started really missing my dog. It's very odd, cos I don't have a dog." - During the ZooTv Tour

I always thought 'The Fly' was this phone call from hell -- but the guy likes it there. - Bono, 1995

Having played God for most of the 80's, I thought it would be fun to play the Devil.
Bono on Mr Macphisto

"MoFo...to me, that's a reason to go out and play live, that song." Bono picks a highlight of the Popmart show, 1997

"We've no sponsor on this tour, and it's not like we've taken some huge high and mighty position on this. I mean if we could get someone to give us a load of money, and not have to kiss ass, we probably would take it. But unfortunately we haven't been able to figure that out." Bono on the finances of the Popmart tour 1997

"I think the question is, why not a lemon?" -Bono on David Letterman, answering the question "Why a lemon?"

This might be the only town in the planet where you are not going to notice that 40 foot lemon Bono, Las Vegas Popmart

"People keep asking what Popmart is all about. Well...I don't f*@king know!" - Bono, Popmart Toronto, 10/27/97

"Here we are in our 40 ft. lemon. F*@k off!" - Bono

"Thank you for building this...whatever this is." -Bono on Popmart

"Hope you like it, 'cause you paid for it."

"The stage is but a platform shoe" - Bono

Rock 'n' roll concerts, there's much more subtle things going on than the obvious. People are screaming more for themselves than they are for us because their lives are bound up in the songs. Songs have a way of getting under your skin in a way that movies don't. It certainly affects me that way. We've always had a strong and deep-rooted connection with our people. - Bono, Star Tribune, Oct. 1997

"?this is our back to the roofs tour, because we're playing on roofs." Bono, 2000

"I have to tell you, I don't like doing intimate concerts. I have very sensitive nasal glands and being that close to so many armpits is absolutely terrifying. I'd rather play a stadium any day." Bono on the disadvantages of shows like the Astoria gig, 2001.

The best seats in the house can't be taken by people with big bank accounts. Though we'll also have expensive tickets for rich people. Rich people have feelings, too, is our position. - Bono, April 2001

"Well on the last night [of filming the colour part of Rattle and Hum] we had this choice. We could either play for the cameras or we could play for the people who paid for the tickets and lined up to get into the concert. And on the last night we decided?.to play for the cameras. [smiles] I jest."

"Lets hope this shit works"

"When you have 50,000 or 100,000 people coming(to a concert) you?ve got to blow their minds."

"We don?t do this (the popmart tour) for the money-we have loads of it. We're doing this for something much more??.worse actually. We're doing this for self respect."

"Are the people on drugs here?? During the concert they all seemed stoned. (The Burswood Dome, Perth Australia)"

"That (ticket prices) stinks!"

"...madness...it's (ticket prices) ridiculous."

"Zoo TV was a great thing but it was a little heavy, a little smart arse?..we wanted to do something more emotional, more about the songs (laughs) except for the lemon! Some people go to rock gigs and cant see or hear anything so we wanted to do something extraordinary." "There are many, many levels to Zoo TV. This is the lowest."

"I don?t know what Zoo TV is all about......so it must be ours!"

"I couldn?t believe we were getting away with it. I couldn't believe we could afford it!"

"I don't think I've ever come home from a tour the person I left, so there's always a moment where the people you come home to wonder if you're going to get on with them. Or if they even want you in the house."

"I think the music is much better than the musician, but also the audience is as much applauding itself as us. One of the things people forget about these large concerts is that the audience have heard the records, it knows the songs from the radio and the music has become part of their lives. When they hear those songs their own selves are caught up in them and they are in some way applauding the connection." June 1985

ON THE RECORDS
"Yes, true, we made it hard for people to love, you couldn't put out a more mixed up record. I mean we really worked hard at that. We worked hard at messing it up for the masses and they still went out and bought it. It is an amazing feeling that the audience is kind of as hip as you are." Bono reflects on the nature of Rattle and Hum, November 1988

We make music you can have sex to - Bono

"We don't write music for food; we write music for sex. Dinner parties just aren't our thing."

"'Fourth of July' from the Unforgettable Fire. It's short, it's an instrumental and no one is going to contradict your interpretation. Bono on which U2 song is best for an English class for lyrical analysis

It's not a dance record! It's a dense record, but it's not a dance record! Bono, on Achtung Baby

In the shower, which is a natural echo chamber, I sing like I never have sung on a record. But the way I always try to sing on records. Completely bollocks naked! Bono, YahooChat, 12 March 2000

"Making records is like making sausages - you'll probably enjoy them more if you don't see how it's done." Bono

"I think there is going to be time when we should strip down to get more space to the music but not to go back to f--in' folk-rock. I'd hate that. I mean, one or two tunes is fine. But just as an overall game plan, I'm just excited about the future now."

"We really didn?t know how things were going to turn out for us. And I tried to stop the release of The Joshua Tree myself. I rang our manager and he said I don?t think the single is selling more than 3 copies, I think we made a big mistake but it had already gone to the pressing plant."

"Its ok to make an epic now and then...just so long as you don't make a habit out of it."

"Finishing an album is like having been in a black hole, or a room with blinds closed and then you go out into the light and everything dazzles you, its so brilliant"

"(to B.B.King) There?s not much chords in this though, I think theres only two(laughs)"

"There were no bad vibes while we were there(berlin) other than edges smelly feet"

"It's(Berlin) more than style-we don?t have any style anyway, swagger but no style"

"It's a con! It's a con. It's just a way of putting people off from the fact that it's a heavy mother. It's probably our most serious record - and yet it's got the least serious title. And it just fooled everyone. They all thought we were, you know, we'd lightened up. Which is totally untrue. We're miserable bastards." March 1992 - talking about the title of Achtung Baby

"(Lemon looks at) the power of imagination, the mind taking off in two different directions - in a Studio 54, Disco Duck setting. The falsetto was completely natural. I've always felt there was a fat woman trying to burst out of me. Don't know what Freud would make of that!" September 1993

"I told somebody I thought it was a dense record and word got around that we were making a dance record."

About The Sweetest Thing: "It was written during the album sessions for 'The Joshua Tree,'" Bono explained, "and it was Ali's birthday and I didn't make it [home] for the birthday. So, I wanted to write her a little sweet song, but it ended up a little bit sour as all the best love songs are. I was like, 'I can't write just straight love songs, they make me want to throw-up.'"

"I use our songs to wake myself up. It's like sticking a needle in your leg after it has gone to sleep." January 1986

"I don't know if any one song is the best song ever written. I find it very hard to listen to our songs because I have no real objectivity but I find the ones I like most are usually the ones that came the easiest."

"I listened to it last week for the first time in ages and I couldn't believe I was part of it. It's a huge record, I couldn't cope with it. I remember the pressure it was made under, I remember writing lyrics on the microphone and at ?50 an hour that's quite a pressure. Lillywhite was pacing up and down the studio...he coped really well. And the ironic thing about 'October' is that there's a kind of peace about the album even though it was recorded under that pressure." February 1982

"'Pride' is the best song we've ever written. We've done very few songs...normally we just make music. 'I Will Follow' was a song, but then the next one wasn't until 'Sunday Bloody Sunday'. It's very different from the rest of the album though - there's nothing on there as straight as this." November 1984

"In the song 'With or Without You' when it says 'and you give yourself away' - everybody else in the group knows what that means. It's about how I feel in U2 at times - exposed."

"I used to described The Unforgettable Fire as a record that was out of focus. And I loved it being out of focus. Y?know, in a world where everything is airbrushed and straight lines and billboard-like we had an album that was beautifully out of focus and impressionistic this record is in focus, and in that sense its very different from The Unforgettable Fire."

"There?s something exciting about subverting the top - 40 radio, because the sort of songs they play on the radio don't seem, for me, they don?t have much relevance to me, or to many people that I meet. I use the term wallpaper music, y?know, background music, music for elevators. I like the idea of stopping that lift, y?know (laughs), peeling off that wallpaper. I like the idea of a U2 song being on the radio somewhere and people listening to it in their cars, or people digging the roads and they have a radio and they?re listening. People, y?know, housewives sitting in the kitchen listening to I Still Haven?t Found What I?m Looking For. I don?t want U2 to be an elitist thing. I mean, people say that were the biggest Cult group in the world, and I like that side of U2, but people who are really into U2 don?t want to keep us a secret."

"The thought of the world waiting for The Joshua Tree is a bit ridiculous. It sounds as if it will sell about three copies."

"Our songs are now being played on the radio, and we must use our position to subvert the Top 40."

"If I am close to the music, and you are close to the music, we are close to each other."

"It's not all of our beliefs and not everyone in the band believes in the same way. There are things I just don't want to talk about. I'll talk about them in music, the way I feel about things comes out on-stage. There are things that don't go well coming indirectly from other people.

ON FAME, THE LIFESTYLE AND CELEBRITY
"We're in this position - I think it's our duty to abuse it." Power goes to Bono's head, 1993.

"It costs a fortune to look this trashy." - Bono at K-Mart

I must say, I don't feel very qualified to be a pop star. I don't think I'm a very good pop star and I feel awkward at times in the role. I think there are other people far better suited than me. I sometimes think it might have been a mistake -you picked the wrong guy! Look, I'm built more like a mechanic or something, a carpenter. I mean, take a look at these hands- these are the hands of a bricklayer. - Bono, 1987

"I'll always be a rock and roll star so long as I don't become a celebrity."

"It's the job of rock 'n roll stars to set fire to themselves, and to, you know, sell flagellation, get up on a cross if they can, but definitely to die at 33." - Bono

"I'm here to kiss Homer Simpson's bottom" - Bono, interview about their part on Simpsons.

"Now they know why we always look so grim[in photographs]. Cause its [photo shoots] just so (photographer approaches so Bono places his hand over his mouth and whispers to Edge) just so boring! [Edge smiles in agreement][Photographer asks] Are you bored?[Bono replies] No, no. [Edge laughs, Bono tries his best to look serious and innocent...he is not successful]"

"There's something I gotta tell you about which is, ah you see were a really big and important group and they want to put us on the cover of Time Magazine, yep. And so, and so, they ah, they say you know it's a pretty good thing to be on the cover of Time Magazine to impress the relatives and all that. So they sent their photographer along and he's gonna take a picture of us with you. (the reason I included this was to show that Bono had not , during R&H, come to terms with U2's success. He is very uncomfortable to have to explain to the crowd why the show had stopped and what was going on)"

"You see people who have to fight for their lives, beg for their lives and then to see some spoilt rock star throw his away kinda irritates me. You know I spoke to Micheal just before (Hutchense) and he agreed with me."

"I think it would be rude and ignorant to say money isn't important to me because money is so important to a lot of people because they don't have it and I know I have it and I'm lucky and I thank God that I have money."

"People see a suite in the top of a hotel in Chicago and think it must be the most incredible place to be. But the more plush the surroundings, the poorer you feel in spirit sometimes."

"I get people throwing too much responsibility on me. People literally arriving to die on my front lawn. People coming from all over the world to pinch a pair of y-fronts off my line." July 1987

"Anyone who needs 50,000 people a night to tell them they're OK has to have a bit missing. And I do mean that in terms of your sense of self, not necessarily in terms of sanity. And I don't think you start out that way but, as with Elvis, it's a place you can get to easily." August 1993

ON LIFE AND HIMSELF
Excerpts from a Letter from Bono to his Father in 1980
"So as you can see, what was once a dream is now very real. But understand that underneath the gloss there is a lot of hard work ahead, and I hope a lot of fun. I miss home, you, Alison Stewart (future wife), sausages, and even the occasional disagreement. You should be aware that at the moment three of the group are committed Christians. That means offering each day up to God, meeting in the morning for prayers, readings, and letting God work in our lives. This gives us our strength and a joy that does not depend on drink or drugs. This strength will, I believe, be the quality that will take us to the top of the music business. I hope our lives will be a testament to the people who follow us, and to the music business where never before have so many lost and sorrowful people gathered in one place pretending they're having a good time. It is our ambition to make more than good music..."

We may be the future of rock, but so what? When I go back to Dublin, to my girlfriend, it's more of a distraction that I'm in a band than any big deal -- and my old man still shouts at me for not doing the dishes before I go to bed. - Bono, Trouser Press, March 1982

I realize that-- there is a battle, as I see it, between good and evil, and I think you've got to find your place in that. It may be on a factory floor, or it may be writing songs. When you're there-- when you're where you should be and you know it in your heart-- that is when you're involved. It may be trite looking back on it; you know, "I can't change the world, but I can change the world in me". - Bono, 1985

Never trust a man who tells you it's from the heart, never trust a man smoking a cigar, never trust a cowboy or a man who wears shades... - Bono

"You must not underestimate the sex appeal in a Hitler."

"It's a terrible thing to get something before you desire it."

"One must be political at times, but sometimes you have to look beyond that, to just the state of the human spirit."

"The human heart is greedy; it will use religion, colour, or any other excuse to justify its greed. Blame the human heart."

"I suppose the thing is, with TV you don't know if what you're seeing is real."

"I don't smoke. Well, I don't inhale."

"It's good to steal."

I would certainly consider myself to be one of the inventors of the mullet. I think it comes down to Patrick Swayze or me. Bono

Having gone through the trouble of selling out, you'd expect to at least knock Michael Jackson off the top Bono Chicago, 1987

I want to play the guitar very badly and I do play the guitar very badly. Bono

Joe. I know I'm a nice bunch of guys but there's about eight of me singing up here. So I don't know which one of them to play the guitar to. Bono to Joe O'Herlihy, U2's sound man, August 1992

I talk too much Bono

'I've learned, for instance, how to listen to Michael Jackson records, I've figured it out. I just pretend I can't speak English. And I am a huge fan as a result. I mean that." Bono

My own dad didn't encourage me much, maybe to save me from being disappointed. And my way of rebelling has been to prove I can go out and win the love of the whole world. But it's a funny need for compensation that makes you need fifty thousand screaming people telling you they love you in order for you to feel normal. Bono

"Coke does not add life. It might be a nice fizzy drink but it does not add life." - Bono

?The inability to put ourselves in another?s shoes is the core of intolerance. In his novel The Book of Evidence, Irish author John Banville?s narrator and murderer confesses to the unforgivable crime of having failed to imagine what it was like to be his victim. ?I could kill her,? he said, ?because to me she was not alive.? If we want to challenge hatred emphatic imagination is central.? -Bono

?It?s your future. Your only limits are the limits of your imagination. Dream up the kind of world you want to live in. Dream out loud...at high volume!? -Bono

"You work in a knicker factory! Lingerie! That's ok, in Sweden we don't wear underpants" - Bono, June 11/92, Stockholm Sweden

"People are interested in bridges. I guess I've always been more interested in what goes on underneath bridges" - Bono, Rolling Stone interview

"I wake up a different person every day. I think it was Edge who once described me as a 'nice bunch of guys."

"I want to play the guitar very badly, and I DO play the guitar very badly."

An amazing tom-tom thing and it became almost salsa, like a slowed down salsa. What would you call it? Portuguese ... Man of War! I love that Portuguese Man Of War beat, that's my favorite. That's really happening here in New York."

"I spent the '80s being a bit freaked out, to be honest with you. 'Cause it is a bit odd when you've got all this stuff that everybody else wants and you try your best to be responsible to your music and your muse. Your head is spinning and then you start to realize that if you're cut off from what's happening to you, it's like a tourniquet on the music. You have to write about what's happening to you, that's the way. And that's not, of course, just hotel bedrooms and late night truck stops, but actually the subject of being in a band, the subject of stardom, fame, celebrity, is an oppressive thing, right now, in the world, it's up there with religion and banking. It's the new oppression, so it's a subject worth talking about."

"The top of the food chain are not actors but stand-up comics. They're telling things the way they are without people even noticing. I would love to play that part. Another part I'd like to play is (Irish writer) Brendan Behan 'cause I could then really go through my fat Elvis period."

"I can remember as a child looking in a mirror and thinking, 'I don't like that!' It's wrong. You're bombarded with all these images and nobody's like that. The effect is total disillusionment with yourself. You put on a mask and hide from yourself, from your own soul, from what you've got to offer. It's a reaction away from the individual, and we stand for individualism."

"I'll tell you what. I might be a cool guy but I'm not that cool."

"I?m learning to lie"

"When you are 16 you think you can take on the world.....and sometimes you are right!"

"I?ve taken my bastard lessons, I?m getting it right-I might actually turn out to be cool"

"America both fascinates and frightens me. I cant get it out of my system"

"U2 saved my life in a way cause I?m literally unemployable. There?s nothing else I can do"

"The thing with the guitar is it has six strings and I only have five fingers"

" I've got a book....I've written poems but I don't know if I'll publish them. If I do I'll call it 'FUCK OFF!! Volume 1'. I get annoyed when people expect me to be a great all-rounder. "

"To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different may be even greater."

"Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like no one is watching."

"If I knew who I was I wouldn't be an artist, I wouldn't be in a band, I wouldn't be here screaming for a living."

"I never knew I was Irish until I went to America."

"John Lennon changed my way of seeing things."

"You only get disillusioned if you had illusions to begin with."

"It's an amazing feeling to be able to do what you want, when you want. And that is, you don't have to kiss ass, you know the feeling? There's a lot of people out there that have to kiss ass everyday, every week - just to make, you know, a buck. Just to... and I don't. I have to kiss Edge's ass occasionally, maybe Larry, but you know..."

"I find it amusing that people think I'm together [because] I'm the most untogether person I know. In the band, they just say, 'here comes chaos.' Oh, I want to be together - it's my ambition to one day get my own life in order and tie it up with string and be as organized as somebody like Adam....Clayton's unbelievable. Field Marshal Clayton! For a guy who can stay out all night, if he needs to be up at 8am, he'll be there at 8am on the button." -Bono, from U2: a Road to Pop

I would certainly consider myself to be one of the inventors of the mullet. I think it comes down to Patrick Swayze or me.

The interview hadn't even begun..... and suddenly we all noticed something very peculiar: Bono - is - taking - all - his - clothes - off. The white shirt went first, then his black suede boots, his socks, trousers, and briefs (black with white trim, possibly Calvin Klein, probably Marks & Spencer). "That's better," he sighed blissfully. "Now ask me a serious question -- if you dare." ...................... Excuse me but why have you taken your clothes off, Bono? ....................... "For the same reason," interjected the Edge, answering on Bono's behalf, "that he's the lead singer. Because he's a rampant sex god with a huge ego." ............... " And a small willy," added Adam. --- Sean O'Hagan, Details, Sep. 1992

Q: If the four of you were in a fight, I mean a truly tough brawl, which one of you would kick the other three's asses? (NME interview, 2001)
Larry: Bono
Adam: Bono
Edge: Bono
Bono: Me


Hey Bono, any good tips and/or words of wisdom to a kid who just picked up his first guitar and has decided to start writing songs? We wrote I Will Follow on two strings. They were the only two we could keep in tune ok, well edge could tune it, I couldn't. My best advice is ignore all advice, especially from your family, the police, neighbours, the world bank, cheerleaders, traffic wardens, publicans, especially publicans, heart surgeons, dog breeders, pigeon fanciers, advertisers, terry keane just don't piss off the pizza man - you're going to depend on him .

"I think the thing I like least about myself is that I'm reasonable. And being reasonable is a very un-pop-star trait. So I'm taking bastard lessons." -- Bono, 1987

?Listen, I'll talk to Jesus. I'll talk to the lady at the check-out there at Kmart. I'll talk to anyone."

"The only place that it's important never to lie as a performer is to your makeup artist."

"No matter how much we wrap it up in tinsel and television, I'm still the geezer with the white flag."

"I used to find it uncomfortable to be around a lot of things. Then I found these goggles. I put them on and I found that I could go anywhere."

"My strongest trait is curiosity, I'm just lifting stones, you know, opening doors. Looking out windows, around corners, up skirts."

"That's why I buy cheap cars."

"We've made a career out of our personality crises, well, certainly I have."

"They say, 'He who loves his life loses it.' But I say, 'Hate your life enough and you can keep it forever.'"

"I break out in cold sweat at the thought of drawing out money. It's bureaucracy. Whether to choose the blue slip or...those kind of decisions are impossible! Going to a supermarket nearly gives me a breakdown! I can write three verses for a song sitting in the bath, but Post Offices make me go weak at the knees." December 1987

"People ask me such serious questions - and I answer them. I'm that dumb."

"I was one of those kids it was impossible to tie down from the very beginning. People used to - and family still do - put up the cross whenever I came in. They called me the Antichrist at age 8!" November 1987

"As a band we have a giant collective ego. It picks us up. Anyway, I don't think I'd be a good bank clerk. Or a hot dog salesman. I might be a good president." February 1982

"All over America they had set up these clubs where they listen to U2 records and actually write cards for Amnesty. If you can inspire something on that scale, that's everything I could ask for. All in fact, I would ask for." November 1987

"Greg Carroll ( to whom the Joshua Tree is dedicated ) was almost flesh and blood with U2. We met him in Auckland, New Zealand...and he worked with us on 'The Unforgettable Fire' Tour...he was one of those guys you say is too good for this world. We haven't and I don't think we ever will, get over his loss. And he died doing me a favour. I don't know what to say. He further made 1986 the most paradoxical year in our lives. That's why the desert attracted me as an image. That year was really a desert for us, it was a terrible time. Death is a real cold shower and I've had a lot. It's followed me around since I was a kid and I don't want to see any more of it." March 1987

"As long as the records keep getting better, we'll keep together. As soon as they get worse, I'm off." April 1992

"The human heart is greedy; it will use religion, colour, or any other excuse to justify its greed. Blame the human heart."

"People think that because I'm attracted to people like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr or even my faith, my belief in Christ, that I am therefore some kind of hero or man of God or peacemaker. One of the reasons I'm attracted to these people is that I'm the very person who would not turn the other cheek. I grew up with a violence in me and it's still in me, and I despise it."

"I am just a musician, and I don't know any more or any less than any guy on any bar stool - in any bar. I'm not a hero. I'm a rock'n'roller. I'm spoilt rotten. I'm paid too much for what I do. I'd do it for nothing, you know. You know what I mean?? It's like- you people, you need heroes, you know. People want to...the media want to create heroes. But if I agreed to the job, you'd kill me!! So, I'm backing out."

"There is a thing about wanting to gag rock and roll, and I've never thought my opinions were more important than anyone else's ... but they are as important."

"It's not enough to rage against the lie...you've got to replace it with the truth."

BP: What's the most frightening thing that ever happened to you?
Bono: I found this pair of sunglasses, I picked them up, I put them on...
ON WORLD AFFAIRS
"I would love to see a united Ireland, but I never could support a man who put a gun to somebody's head to see that dream come true." July 1987

"That's 1-2-0-2-4-5-6-1-4-1-4, ok...hello, is this the White House? Hi, could I speak to President George Bush? George isn't available? But it's our last night...hello...could I leave a message for George? I was just gonna say I wouldn't be bothering him from now on. I'm gonna be bothering Bill Clinton now." - MacPhisto

What a city. What a night. What a mistake. What a wanker you have for president. - Bono on the French president's nuclear policy, MTV Europe Awards in Paris, Nov. 1995. Hardly his most diplomatic moment.

The whole idea of U2 using a white flag onstage was to get away from the green, white and orange. To get away from the Stars and Stripes. To get away from the Union Jack. ... I'm frightened of borders and I get scared when people start saying that they're prepared to kill, to back up their belief in where a border should be. I mean, I'd love to see a united Ireland but I don't believe you can put a gun to someone's head to make him see your way. - Bono, 1996

Being one can be great but respecting differences can be greater. - Bono in Belfast, August 26, 1997

'Am I buggin' you?....I don't mean to bug ya'... - After a speech on apartide during ?Sliver and Gold? (Rattle and Hum)

"As a pop star I have two instincts. I want to have fun. And I want to change the world. I am not alone. On New Years Eve '99 there's a chance to do both. The expectation towards what is a fairly spurious date - depending on your calendar - is still an energy to be harnessed." - Talking Jubilee 2000

"It's (why war is) the subject of a lot of our songs. I come from Ireland. Ireland is also divided. Again, they say its religion but you know its not religion. See, the human heart is greedy. It seeks any excuses for that. Religion is a convenient one. Colour is a convenient one. I've been through various different stages in working this out. One must be political at times, but sometimes you have to look beyond that to just the state of the human spirit. I guess that?s where I?m at right now. I'm examining my own hypocrisy, I'm examining my own greed. I've stopped even pointing at politicians. [laughs] I've found there?s enough subject matter in my heart. I was very inspired by Martin Luther King. He was a character in the middle of a very dangerous situation - civil rites for African Americans in the 60s. It could have gone very wrong...The word peace is like bullshit a lot of the time, it's like flowers-in-the-hair hippie talk, but he held onto a much stronger idea, a much more concrete idea about peace and respect, and he just kept on to it, he just kept pummelling it. The idea was that he'd live for his country but he didn?t want to die for it and he would never kill for it. And he did die for it. It's a hard thong to hold onto. There must be an incredible urge...People deserve the right to defend themselves against evil and they must decide how to do that. But if there?s any other alternative obviously you?ve got to seek it. I know that?s what you guys (Bill Carter and Jason Aplon - who runs the International Rescue Committee's office in Bosnia) have been trying and you haven?t been allowed, and I'm really, really sorry to hear about that. And I understand any reaction. But I just hope that even in the middle of that you don?t have to become like the animals attacking you. Dignity. Self respect. These are things that people can't take away. And humour. Humour is the evidence of freedom."

"The bombs may not go off in Dublin...but they are made here."

"Look what you've done to me-you've made me very famous and I thank you for it. I know you like your pop stars to be exciting so i bought these [motions to his gold sparkly platforms]. Now my time among you is almost at an end. The glory of Zoo TV must ascend and take its place amongst all the other satellites. But never fear- I'll still be watching you. I leave behind video cameras for each of you. So many listening tonight I have a list.....People of America [SHOOSH!] I gave you Bill Clinton, I put him on CNN, NBC, CSPAN...too tall to be a despot but watch him closely. People of Asia, your time is coming, without your tiny transistors none of this would be possible. People of Europe, when I first came among you, you were all squabbling like children, now you are all hooked up to the one cable as close as stations on the dial. People of the former Soviet Union, I've given you capitalism so now you can all dream of being as wealthy and glamorous as me. People of Sarajevo, count your blessings. There are those all over the world with food, heat and security but they aren't on TV like you are. Frank Sinatra I give you MTV demographic. Goodbye Squidgy, I hope they give you Wales, goodbye Micheal, goodbye all you Neo-nazi's, I hope they give you Auschwitz. Around about this time I often make telephone call.......[Mr. Macphisto]"

"And let me tell you something....I?ve had enough of Irish Americans who haven?t been back to their country in 20 or 30 years talking about the resistance and the revolution, and the glory of the revolution, and the glory of dying for the revolution. FUCK THE REVOLUTION. They don?t talk about the glory of killing for the revolution. Where?s the glory in that?"

"Oh, this will make a great headline. U2 Arrives in West Berlin to Protest the Pulling Down of the Wall."

"That's all we can do - bring the facts [about Sellafield] out. We're a rock & roll band! It's kind of absurd we have to dress up like complete wankers to make this point."

"The Millennium Dome isn't big enough to fill this anticipation. The punters want . . . er, content. It's a new world order all right, and a media-savvy populace can see through the fact that a lot of people living on this planet are hungry and angry. There's a cyber circus planned, but no bread. It gets harder to enjoy the house party, when the faces of hunger and exploitation are so regularly pressed up against the glass of our TV sets, looking in at us, looking away. Good."

"Anger is the only response on realising that that sum is spent every week by the poorest countries of Africa - on debt service. Africa owes $227 billion to western creditors - $379 for every man, woman and child in Africa. She can do with spending that just on her children. Debris being cleared across the Honduras and Nicaragua was even more crushing when its citizens realised they were also carrying $1.5 million a day in debt service. Consider: for every $1 the West gives in aid to developing countries, $9 comes back in debt service. As Larry Elliott said in this paper last week, these days we don't have debtors prisons for people. We have them for countries instead."

"Long after our governments and banks have solicited and financed dodgy dictators, and they have gone belly up, their successors have to carry the can."

"So, Live Aid, Comic Relief are only a beginning. People don't want crumbs from the table. They don't want charity. They want to be at the table."

"Both sides are to blame. There's been a mix of bad lending, bad borrowing, bad economics and bad luck. Jubilee 2000 says, write off those unpayable debts in the year 2000, under an open, fair and transparent process. Put in place a new discipline for lending and borrowing to stop the debts building up again. I'm with Jubilee 2000."

"The millennium is a key moment in time. We have to grasp that moment. It is not a time for factions, for narrow sects or ideological crusades. Jubilee 2000 is none of those things. Jubilee 2000 is bipartisan. It is broad, inclusive and international. It is emerging as a fresh convergence of differing groups. Including conservative elements, recognising the rule of money-lenders has gone too far."

"The conservative Wall Street Journal last month described the debt servicing costs of some third world countries as 'obscene', and called for a bankruptcy procedure to deal with them. Jeffrey Sachs, formerly the architect of 'shock therapy' ultra-monetarist reforms in post-Soviet Russia, argued that the first fundamental need for the poorest countries is that their debts should be 'cancelled outright'. And the Adam Smith Institute last week claimed that by cancelling unpayable debt, 'we not only raise the living standards of the desperately poor but we give them a chance and the investment to embark on that upward path which generates growth, wealth and jobs. Cancellation is in our interests as well as theirs'."

"The eve of '99 will provide a unique set of circumstances. And we have a unique set of players, who I believe are ready to face the implications of their own script. Tony Blair is one such performer. So is Gordon Brown. Grand gesture is the performer's twitch. A sense of occasion is everything. Gerhard Schroder is another player. He remembers Germany's hardship after the war, and how the cancelling of debt combined with the Marshall Plan, saved the next generation of Germans from repeating the horrors of the 20's and 30's. As the next millennium begins I believe he will be ready to play his role. So will Bill Clinton."

"Actually, I may be naive, but I believe they have the will. But they will only find the way if there is an extraordinary public outcry. The millennium is a key moment in time. We have to grasp that moment. Nineties people may feel at times disaffected or disenfranchised politically, but they're not without conscience."

"I'm in the music business, the volume business. Making a lot of noise is something musicians do well. Florescence you could call it. We see a chance here, for an idea that will give not just the millennium some meaning, but also our generation."

"I've had calls from people such as the singer Lauryn Hill (on the way to having her baby) Pavarotti, Oasis, Smashing Pumpkins, REM, Beastie Boys, Michael Jackson and the blessed Bob Geldof himself. Add these names to those of the TUC, the BMA, Christian Aid and others and you begin to have the kind of broad convergence that ended slavery and, eventually, apartheid. But it does not hold indefinitely. It exists only for the moment. We must not let it pass us by." - Talking Jubilee 2000

ON RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY AND GOD>
"Well, I can't tell the difference between ABC News, Hill Street Blues, and the preacher of the Old Time Gospel Hour, stealing money from the sick and the old. Well, the God I believe in isn't short of cash, mister." -Bono during 'Bullet The Blue Sky'

I'm a believer in God, but that doesn't mean I don't get angry. - Bono, 1997

Who knows who really wrote the Bible. I really don't care who wrote it. I didn't buy Lieber and Stoller. They were just songwriters. I bought Elvis. Bono, Book of Psalms intro

German radio interviewer: "Recently, you've met Bill Clinton and the Pope. Who's next - God?"
Bono: "Oh, I'm sure I'll get to meet him one day. But maybe not just yet." 2000

"I believe that if we follow logic all the way to the smallest point we will find God." -Bono

"If bands stray away from God they seem to lose success" - Bono

"I think the church is a big problem." February 1981

"I met this guy once in a mental hospital I was visiting. He introduced himself as Jesus Christ. I just said, 'Haven't we met before?' He said nothing. I asked him why, if he was the son of God, was he in a mental hospital? He said, 'Because it's my 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness.' At that point I just cracked up. I asked him when the end of the world was going to come. He said April 1. I thought, 'Brilliant, pencil it into the diary. The world will end on April Fools' Day. Perfect.' " December 1987

"All the best songs are co-written by God, y'know!" 1987

"People expect that because I am a believer that I somehow have all the answers. And I was saying that really I have more questions, as a result of being a believer, and the road I am going down is a road with many side roads, and you get lost along the way and I don?t feel that I?m a very good ad for God, y'know. If ever there was a sinner there is one here.

"I think people understand that I'm not religious. When I talk of religion I'm talking about the force which has cut this country (Ireland) in two. I'm not religious at all, but I do believe in God very strongly, and I don't believe that we just kind of exploded out of thin air, I can't believe it."

"I believe in the powers that be, but they won't overpower me."

"I'm not religious at all but I do believe in God strongly, and I don't believe that we just exploded out of thin air. I think it's the spiritual strength that's essential to the band."

"I think it's the spiritual strength that's essential to the band. People have got to find their own way. I'm not into standing up and saying, 'hey, you should be into God!' My own life is exhilirating through an experience I feel, and I feel there's no point in talking about something which should be there in your life anyway. You don't have to preach about it.

"I'm frightened, but I'm not cynical or pessimistic about the future and a lot of that must come down to my beliefs. It is my belief in God that enables me to get up in the morning and face the world. I believe that there is a logic and a reason for everything. If I didn't believe that and thought that everything was simply down to chance, then I'd really be afraid. I wouldn't cross the road for fear of being run over."

"People would love to sensationalise our beliefs until they meant nothing. Three of us are committed Christians. We refute the belief that man is just a higher stage of animal, that he has no spirit. I think when people start believing that, the real respect for humanity is gone. You are just a cog in a wheel, another collection of molecules. That's half the reason for a lot of the pessimism in the world."

"Can you imagine how it feels to believe in Christ and be so uncomfortable with Christianity? The church is an empty, hollow building. It's the edifice. The established church is the edifice of Christianity. It's as if when the spirit of God leaves a place, the only things that are left are the pillars of rules and regulations to keep its roof on. And we are more and more claustrophobic around organised religion. I used to think I could walk into a Protestant or Catholic church or whatever and just be at one with myself and the surroundings. But we are... it's as if the way we are outsiders in the music scene we're outsiders on every level. We get flak from everyone. We seem to be walking this line, and whenever we cross it either way it's a long way down, on either side, to fall. And I don't know how we're still there, but it takes it all away to talk about it too much.

ON THE FANS
You must not look down on someone just 'cos they are 14 years old. When I was that age I listened to the music of John Lennon and it changed my way of seeing things, so I'm just glad that 14 year olds are coming to see U2 rather than group X. - Bono, 1988

"You know, the plane is waiting so I really don't have time to sign...Is there a pen?" Bono, 1998

There's 2 kinds of U2 fans -- there's the ones that want us to get to number one because they just like the idea of us winning out there. Then there's the others who actually get disappointed when we get to number one because their little brother gets into it. Bono

Propaganda: Bono - most interesting question asked recently by a fan? "Have you seen Bono?"

"(someone from outside screams "BONO!") That is far out. How do you scream 20 floors down and be heard-Rock and Roll Doggie!-that has got to be the loudest voice I have ever heard......only Americans"

"I expect for fans to be fucking brave and a bit brilliant?

"Where's my public? My God, they've deserted me! This is a crisis. We'd better do something. Stir up some publicity or something. 'Bono in under-age sex orgy.' That should do it. I want my public back." December 1987

ON LOVE AND THE FAIRER SEX
I danced every night under a mirror ball with a young lady from the Zoo TV crowd. Every night during 'Love Is Blindness'. They were amazing. I love it so much. Some nights I fell in love. I never really spoke to these people, but that's okay. - Bono, 1995

"The Holy Spirit is like a woman. Undependable. Joke! Joke!"

"I have a weakness for belly dancers; they make me wriggle." - Something he evidently shares in common with Edge.

"I dance much better horizontally than vertically." - Work it out for yourself children....And wouldn?t most of us like to try and prove it.

"When I talk about love I'm thinking of unselfish love. Sex can be bought and sold just like anything else. But I think real love is about giving and not expecting anything in return." February 1983

"All our songs are about God or women, and we often get the two mixed up."

"Most of our organization is run by women. We sort of work for them, really!" - 1992

ON HOME AND ALI
Dublin is our anchor, I suppose. The people here don't allow you to act like a rock star. It's a reminder of how important our family and friends are, how very much we need them to keep us from being swallowed up in the pop world. I want to hold on to who I am. - Bono, Los Angeles Times, April 1987

It's almost impossible to be married and on the road, but Ali is able to make it work. A year went by when I hardly saw her at all. I was coming in when she was walking out the door. Still she's a very strong person and she doesn't take any shit from me. - Bono

It was my missus's Ali's birthday at the time which I'd actually forgotten about, so I thought I can write her a song as I didn't have time to get a gift. When it came to be released, Ali said 'I own that'. - Bono talking about "The Sweetest Thing"

"After introducing these beautiful women to my wife, they all lost interest in me! They're her friends now."

`He sleeps blissfully all day and roars all night. Ali is a saint; I try to do my bit, but I don't have the right breasts.'' Bono, about baby Elijah, September 1999

Bono always says that he feels like a bit of litter around the house, that I just want to tidy him away. Ali on how it's like when Bono comes home after touring

"I'm up at the top of a really tall building, which is pretty cool, and there's an airplane flying low, it's really mad. Ireland is not really renown for its tall buildings, so this is a quite a thing."

"They [U2's parents] weren't always supportive. Like Edge?s mother, Mrs. Edge we call her, had a little Volkswagen and she was a really cool lady and she would like put all the gear and all the band in the Volkswagen she'd like pick us up at 4am in the morning to take us home and she was out there so that worked. But my old man, when I came home at night, would be waiting at the top of the stairs with a machine gun, several knives, you know it was just target practice."

"The traffic is very fast here in London - the lights go green, and wham! they move off. In Dublin they'll cough, scratch and then away they go. It's like Dublin's in a constant state of amber." November 1979

WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT HIM...
"Then Bono arrived, and he meant to play the guitar, but he couldn't play very well, so he started to sing. He couldn't do that either. But he was such a charismatic character that he was in the band anyway, as soon as he arrived. I was in charge for the first five minutes, but as soon as Bono got there, I was out of a job." Larry describes Bono's persona, April 1987.

"You have made people listen. You have made people care, and you have taught us that whether we are poor or prosperous, we have only one world to share. You have taught young people that they do have the power to change the world." Kofi Annan (UN Secretary General) pays tribute to Bono, November 1999.

"He's a poet. He's a philosopher. And last night, I think I saw him walking on water." Mick Jagger introducing Bono as he received his MTV Free Your Mind award, November 1999.

Bono flies without a parachute Edge

There was a huge bus coming right toward the car. For a very brief moment, I thought, "Ok. I'm going to die with Bono. That's a beautiful death..." U2 fan, while driving with Bono

There are two Bonos - one is the saint with all the problems of the world on his shoulders and some answers in his heart. The other Bono knows that Bono is not to be taken too seriously Jackie Hayden

I'll always have plenty of time for Bono but rarely enough tape Liam Mackey, HotPress

Years ago, before either of the boys were born, my wife and I went down to Sligo for a week. She went to a fortune teller and the fortune teller told my wife that she would have two children and one of them would have the initial P and he would be famous in whatever life he took up. Bob Hewson

Bono's funny way with fans: someone approaches and asks for an autograph, so he ? green boa, orange hair, shades, ginger check suit - puts his finger to his lips: 'Sh - I'm keeping a low profile.' Brian Eno 1995

BP: Did you ever think you were going to die?
Larry: Yes, only on the back of Bono's motorbike!
Edge: Only on the back of Bono's motorbike.
Adam: Only in the back of Bono's car.


After the release of Joshua Tree Bono was embraced as rock's latest mystic leader, a sort of holy cross between the Morrisons, Jim and Van Neil McCormick, HotPress

"He's far funnier, takes himself far less seriously than most people think. He's wild, he's not reserved. None of the cliches that spring to mind when you think of most peoples' perception of him." ~Edge the Great on Bman

"Every band needs someone like Bono in it. When you join a band you don't know who's good at what. I'm really pleased that Bono took the job that he took and that I took the job that I took." - Adam

"Bono would search for that higher state, improvising lyrics on the microphone, allowing the words, the feeling -- at it's best the ecstasy -- take hold." - Adam

"I don't know whether Bono thought him up. I think he's been around for a long time. I just think Bono likes wearing his clothes." [About McPhisto]- Adam

"You can't be incognito with Bono. It's no problem on my own." - Adam

(bono...i think...says "Larry if I had feet like yours I wouldnt want them in the film")If I had a head like yours Id bleedin bury it" - Larry

"It's [the Bono perception] a caricature of one face of his character. It's Bono as seen through the eyes of the songs. But the character of Bono is totally different to that. That's the truth - that guy is totally different to the way most people think of him. He's far funnier, takes himself far less seriously than most people think. He's wild, he's not reserved. None of the cliches that spring to mind when you think of people's perception of him." - Edge

"The house functions better without him I think! You have no idea what he's like. He hasn't changed. He's still the same as he always was. He's cute in his own way. It's the old story." - Bob Hewson

"I remember when he was about 3, only a toddler. He was out in the back garden. He went over to a flower with a bee. He put it on his finger, lifted the bee up, talked to the bee, and put it back again. He probably doesn't remember it, I don't think I ever mentioned it, but I can remember to this day the horror of my wife and myself. He could go from flower to flower picking up bees and never got stung. Amazing, isn't it?" - Bob Hewson

We get our skis on and Bono falls over immediately... (Adam '82)


Enjoy :D
 
Wow that was a lot Bono-vox!

If you need any more (lol!) I have pages of his quotes on my site, you can find it here


and on PLEBA if you look back one or two days in a thread titled "Bono Speaks" I transcribed some interesting quotes from the book "In His Own Words"

:) Olive
 
oliveu2cm said:
Wow that was a lot Bono-vox!

If you need any more (lol!) I have pages of his quotes on my site, you can find it here


and on PLEBA if you look back one or two days in a thread titled "Bono Speaks" I transcribed some interesting quotes from the book "In His Own Words"

:) Olive

Thank you.......nice site also:bono:
 
Olive im still gonna review your site for you- they have been sending me to the cinema a lot recently...going on monday to review some film so ill be typing it up on tuesday and ill have no more exams then wooohooooo ill send it to you then lol....a wee bit late :D
 
Wohoo! That is absolutely great to get such a big help! :)
I wanted to post my rather small collection of quotes, but you said them already all.

:up: bono-vox! :lol:
 
bono-vox said:
Olive im still gonna review your site for you- they have been sending me to the cinema a lot recently...going on monday to review some film so ill be typing it up on tuesday and ill have no more exams then wooohooooo ill send it to you then lol....a wee bit late :D

sweet, thanks! :happy:
 
I got some i don't think were mentioned earlier:

"we were crap musicians really, but when we played together something went off. something inside said this could be everything in your life" - about the early days

"not just any band - the best band on the planet."

"it's like landing a 747 on your front lawn" - at the Irving plaza show

"they say the shy people are secretly megalomaniacs. Edge is wearing a No.1 T-shirt - it's the little things that give them away..." - (not 100% sure if it's correct, from the Making of the video for Elevation)

"It's hard being Bono..." - at a interview, after Larry describes Bono's activism

"A soft and cuddly U2." - Grammys 2000
 
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