Bono

“... But the one thing we can all agree -- all faiths, all ideologies -- is that God is with the vulnerable and poor. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.”

“And I can't tell the difference between ABC News, Hill Street Blues And a preacher on 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!”

“The ones whose light will remain with me long after they have burnt out are the ones that had grace. Because it's rare that the gift comes with grace. Some of the biggest arseholes I've ever met are the most gifted. Because it's "pretty girl" syndrome. Being gifted is like being born beautiful. You don't have to work a day in a year in your life for it. You were born with it. In one sense, it's like blue blood, money, gift, or beauty. They are the things that should make you the most humble, because they are not the things you have earned. They are the things you were given. Yet, it is my experience that they male people the most spoiled. And the people who work the hardest, and who have overcome the most obstacles on their life, who have reason to beat their breasts are the most humble, sometimes. I can't get over that. it's bewildering to me. To make it through success and still have manners, to still have curiosity, intellectual curiosity, to still have some grace, to keep your dignity, that is really... rare.”

“I have a room, which is in my brain, and it's very, very, very... untidy! There is stuff fallen everywhere. There are some very important ideas next to dome very silly ones. There is a bottle of wine that was opened five years ago, and there is a lunch I haven't eaten from last summer. There are faces of children who are going to die but don't have to. There's my fathers face telling me to tidy up my room. So that's what I'm doing - tidying my room.”

“The past is not a place I like to visit. This project is forcing me to go there, to tidy up my thoughts. I'm not normally a navel-gazer. I've always thought you find yourself in other people. I'm visiting here. I don't want to set up house.”

“On the phone, it's about as intimate as it can get. The person's right in your ear. You got to be careful on the phone. You can leave yourself wide open”

“The great gifts of models are not that they're more beautiful than the next person, it's that they're able to be photographed and not be self-conscious.”

“Happiness is for those who don't really need it. So I can live without happiness.”

“It's quite widespread in rock culture, that mythology of the shooting star.I'd rather be the North star. As bob (Dylan) says, you can navigate by it.”

“The reason I like the game chess is because each move has countless repercussions, but you're in charge of them. And it's your ability to see into the future and the effects of the decisions you've made that males you either a good or not a good chess player. It's not luck.”

“We thought that we had the answers, it was the questions we had wrong.”

“What you don't have you don't need it nowWhat you don't know you can feel it somehowWhat you don't have you don't need it nowDon't need it nowIt was a beautiful day.”

“If your heart was hard, that would be better / You could only break it once or twice / After that it would be rid of blood and you could let it turn to ice.”

“It's still very difficult for me to rely. Your weakness, the blessing of your weakness is it forces you into friendships. The things that you lack, you look for in others.”

“I do see the good in people, but I also see the bad --- I see it in myself. I know what I'm capable of. Good and bad. It's very imnportant that we make that clear. Just because I often find a way around the darkness doesn't mean tjat I don't know it's there. (Bono)”

“I think that the camera loves peopke who...loathe the camera (Bono)”

“A degree of narcissism is necessary, I suppose, to look in the pool to see your reflection. (Bono)”

“Every artist is a cannibal/every poet is a thief/all kill for inspiration/and then sing about the grief.”

“I am a Christian - but sometimes I feel very removed from Christianity. The Jesus Christ that I believe in was the man who turned over the tables in the temple and threw the money-changers out - substitute T.V. evangelists if you like…why in the West, do we spend so much money on extending the arms race instead of wiping out malaria, which could be eradicated given ten minutes worth of the world's arm budget? To me, we are living in the most un-Christian times. When I see these racketeers, the snake-oil salesmen on these right-winged television stations, asking for not your $20.00, or your $50.00, but your $100.00 in the name of Jesus Christ, I just want to throw up!!”

“Essentially, I'm a very real person; good and bad. And the public image is one of being very good, I suppose. But one of the reasons I'm attracted to people like Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, Christ, to pacifism, is because naturally, I'm the guy that would not turn the other cheek - but, when people see you're attracted to that, they think you are that.”

“For all that "I was lost, I am found," it is probably more accurate to say, "I was really lost, I'm a little less so at the moment.”

“Where you live should not determine whether you live, or whether you die.”

“One Life, with each other, Sisters, Brothers...”

“God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.”

“We can't fix all problems but we must fix the ones we can”

“The God I believe in isn't short on cash, mister.”

“Religion often gets in the way of God.”

“I'm a musician. I write songs. I just hope when the day is done I've been able to tear a little corner off of the darkness.”

“Whenever I see grace, I’m moved.”

“The right to be irresponsible and stupid is something I hold very dear. And luckily it is something I do well.”

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

“I will admit that we are attracted to issues that unify people rather than divide them.”

“There's a point where you find yourself tiptoeing as an artist, and then you know that you're in the wrong place.”

“There is a root arrogance in any writer; a hugely arrogant assumption that anyone is going to listen to them.”

“Perspective is the cure for depression.”

“We're starting our own religion at last. The Order of Frisbeetarians. We believe that when you die, your soul ascends to a rooftop and you can never get it back.”

“I love America and I hate it. I'm torn between the two. I have two conflicting visions of America. One is a kind of dream landscape and the other is a kind of black comedy.”

“If I don't understand it, it must be art.”

“Music can change the world because it can change people.”

“Feelings are much stronger than thoughts. We are all led by instinct, and our intellect catches up later”

“In general people put too much faith in the rich, the famous, the politicians, and not enough faith in themselves.”

“Laughter is eternity if joy is real.”

“Even though I'm a believer, I still find it really hard to be around other believers. They make me nervous, they make me twitch. I sorta watch my back.”

“There's no retirement for an artist,its your way of living so theres no end to it.”

“You don't become an 'artist' unless you've got something missing somewhere. Blaise Pascal called it a God-shaped hole. Everyone's got one but some are blacker and wider than others. It's a feeling of being abandoned,cut adrift in space and time-sometimes following the loss of a loved one. You can never completely fill that hole-you can try with songs,family,faith and by living a full life...but when things are silent, you can still hear the hissing of what's missing.”

“Books! I dunno if I ever told you this, but books are the greatest gift one person can give another. ”

“I wouldn't run for President. I wouldn't want to move to a smaller house.”

“What we're about in this band, I hope...is that we put people before ideas.”

“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, 'cause I don't have a dog.”

“The most profound voice of any musician I have ever heard. Joe (Strummer) took his message to the world, and the world listened. He managed to influence more than one generation with his innovative and determined manner, and I am not alone in repeatedly turning to his thoughts and lyrics when searching for inspiration. The Clash was the greatest rock band. They wrote the rule book for U2.”