Irish singer & songwriter (1960- )
I have to come clean; I've broken a lot of laws, and the ones I haven't I've certainly thought about. I have sinned in thought, word, and deed. God forgive me. Actually God forgave me, but why would you? I'm here getting a doctorate, getting respectable, getting in the good graces of the powers that be, I hope it sends you students a powerful message: Crime does pay.
BONO
2004 PENN Address
Hey if God will send his angels / And if God will send a sign / And if God will send his angels / Would everything be alright?
BONO
"If God Will Send His Angels", Pop
Every Artist is a Cannibal, every Poet is a Thief. All kill for inspiration and sing about their grief.
BONO
"The Fly"
The battle against AIDS is not a last decade issue. It's going to be the next decade issue. We need to finish the job, get new companies, new interest. It's kind of annoying and sometimes upsetting that these global health issues can become creatures of fashion. People think Aids is done -- it's not done.
BONO
The Irish Times, January 24, 2016
I want to run, I want to hide, I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside. I want to reach out and touch the plains, Where the streets have no names.
BONO
"Where the Streets Have No Names"
The fact is that this generation -- yours, my generation ... we're the first generation that can look at poverty and disease, look across the ocean to Africa and say with a straight face, we can be the first to end this sort of stupid extreme poverty, where in the world of plenty, a child can die for lack of food in it's belly.
BONO
2004 PENN Address
Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die.
BONO
"Crumbs from Your Table"
I have very little memory of my childhood, so as I raise my kids the memories come back in the most bizarre ways. Like you're singing your baby a song, and you don't know why you remember it, but somehow you do. You don't even know the tune, but you sing it anyway and think, How am I singing this song?
BONO
Oprah Magazine, April 2004
On the day of my 50th birthday I received an injury because I was over indulging in exercise boxing and cycling, which was itself an overcompensation for overindulging on alcohol coming up to the big birthday. I promised myself I would be more mindful of my limits, but just four years on, it happened again -- a massive injury I can't blame on anyone but myself, mainly because I blanked out on impact and have no memory of how I ended up in New York Presbyterian with my humerus bone sticking through my leather jacket. Very punk rock as injuries go.
BONO
"LITTLE BOOK OF A BIG YEAR: Bono's A to Z of 2014"
Religion is the artifice, you know, the building, after God has left it sometimes, like Elvis has left the building. You hold onto religion, you know, rules, regulations, traditions. I think what God is interested in is people's hearts, and that's hard enough.
BONO
interview, Larry King Weekend, December 1, 2002
I avoided religious people most of my life. Maybe it had something to do with having a father who was Protestant and a mother who was Catholic in a country where the line between the two was, quite literally, a battle line. Where the line between church and state was ... well, a little blurry, and hard to see. One of the things that I picked up from my father and my mother was the sense that religion often gets in the way of God. For me, at least, it got in the way. Seeing what religious people, in the name of God, did to my native land ... and in this country, seeing God's second-hand car salesmen on the cable TV channels, offering indulgences for cash ... in fact, all over the world, seeing the self-righteousness roll down like a mighty stream from certain corners of the religious establishment ... I must confess, I changed the channel. I wanted my MTV. Even though I was a believer. Perhaps because I was a believer.
BONO
remarks at National Prayer Breakfast, February 2, 2006
I don't believe in riches, but you should see where I live.
BONO
"God Part II"
Well, the heart that hurts is a heart that beats.
BONO
"One Step Closer"
To touch is to heal, to hurt is to steal
If you want to kiss the sky, better learn how to kneel.
On your knees, boy.
BONO
"Mysterious Ways"
Don't believe them when they tell me there ain't no cure. The Rich stay healthy, the Sick stay poor.
BONO
"God Part II"
Oh, I don't like the name, U2, actually ... because the history of great rock 'n' roll bands with crap names. I mean, people forget that the Beatles is a really bad pun, you know.... The first name was the Hype, which we soon lived up to. And Feedback was another one, and then a man called Steven Averill, who designs and still designs our album covers, came up with the name U2.
BONO
interview, Larry King Weekend, December 2, 2002
It's much harder to be relevant than it is to be successful.
BONO
interview, Larry King Weekend, 2002
The world is more malleable than you think and it's waiting for you to hammer it into shape.
BONO
2004 PENN Address
I really remember John Lennon's Imagine. I guess I'm twelve; that's one of my first albums. That really set fire to me. It was like he was whispering in your ear -- his ideas of what's possible. Different ways of seeing the world.
BONO
Rolling Stone, November 3, 2005
When I was 10, I learned what unlocks creativity. We were studying William Butler Yeats, one of the great poets of the 20th century, and my teacher explained that there was a period when Yeats had writer's block. I put my hand up in class and asked, "Why didn't he write about that?" It was like, "Oh, shut up." I've since learned that there's something to being truthful. The Scriptures say the truth will set you free. The truth is at the root of every piece of creativity. So if you're truthful about your situation, whatever it is as an artist--whether it's despair, whether it's hope, whether it's ambition--suddenly you're there.
BONO
Oprah Magazine, April 2004