Irish singer & songwriter (1960- )
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 don't believe in riches, but you should see where I live.
BONO
"God Part II"
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
Love is a temple, Love a higher law.
BONO
"One"
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 world is more malleable than you think and it's waiting for you to hammer it into shape.
BONO
2004 PENN Address
It's much harder to be relevant than it is to be successful.
BONO
interview, Larry King Weekend, 2002
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"
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 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"
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
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"
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
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"
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
Well, the heart that hurts is a heart that beats.
BONO
"One Step Closer"
There's a truly great Irish poet. His name is Brendan Kennelly, and he has this epic poem called the Book of Judas, and there's a line in that poem that never leaves my mind, it says: "If you want to serve the age, betray it." What does that mean, to betray the age? Well to me betraying the age means exposing its conceits, it's foibles; it's phony moral certitudes. It means telling the secrets of the age and facing harsher truths.
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
Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die.
BONO
"Crumbs from Your Table"