"I am a pest. I am a stone in the shoe of a lot of people living here in this town. I'm a squeaky wheel. But, actually, the President said that's what they need -- come back, you know, keep at me. And I intend to." -- Bono, 2002, speaking to reporters at the White House

"I saw the TV film back, and I thought I'd made a big mistake and misjudged the situation. I thought, that's it. I thought I had to leave the group. This thing where I was ending up in the audience had gone so wrong for me."

Bono, about "Live Aid"

"I like to be respected. But when it goes further than that, when people wanna find out the meaning of life just because you can sing in tune, because you can write songs - well, then they got the wrong guy."

"Spending time in Africa and seeing people in the pits of poverty, I still saw a very strong spirit in the people, a richness of spirit I didn't see when I came home." -- Bono, about his 1985 trip to Ethiopia

"All celebrities tend to milk their celebrity when it suits them, but, when you're as blessed, privileged, and, let's be honest, over-rewarded, as I have been in my life, I think you have a responsibility to put something back."

"A landscape of the heart: twelve versions of one song, twelve takes on an obsession." Bono describing Achtung Baby

"It is still an extraordinary thing to behold the sound of a rock and roll band in full flight. Not just the sound of it when it gets airborne - but the deals that you make on the ground; the promises that your friendship will survive being broke [or] not being broke; the Eighties - and maybe 20 years later you will find yourselves at an award ceremony with people you started out with. Wow."

"I just don't see U2 as a success. I just see U2 as a whole list of failures: the songs we haven't written and the concerts we haven't played." -- Bono, 1987

"I'm a European; I see an America that's rehabilitated in a way that was unimaginable to me 10 years ago. Back then the U.S. was the neighborhood bully, inept in foreign policy, beating up on the wrong guy everywhere. With The Joshua Tree, we were writing about Central America and the dark side of the United States. Now America looks smart and, dare I say it, sexy again." -- Bono, 2000

"When you're in the best band in the world and you have a good day in the studio it is quite amazing. But when you have 12 good days in the studio then you get 12 amazing songs for one amazing album." -- Bono, 1999

"I don't want to be so deep that people have to drown to relate to me." -- Bono, 1987

"It's hard to believe, hard to be a believer, when you see the way the things are in the world. But I am a believer!" -- Bono, 1997

"I guess some of the people out there who buy our records say that U2 has gone out into the ether and wish we'd come back to earth. Well, the bad news is, we're not coming back. I like it out there." -- Bono

"I've kind of evened out now, but over the last few years, I've backlashed completely. Drank far too much and did far too many things out of this odd, weird reverse guilt." -- Bono, 1987, discussing his struggle with the standard rock and roll vices

"U2's music has taken me on some odd diversions. But this has got to be the maddest and most absurd experience of my life." -- Bono, after meeting the Pope in 1999

"The album is quite literally a journey into the unknown. I'd like to say that was by design but in fact it's by accident. In a way, the album starts with birth and ends with conception. That's the truth - I wish I was joking." -- Bono, describing Achtung Baby

"At school he stuck out like a sore thumb. He used to drink coffee in class and the teachers got used to it. He wore a kilt. He also took off his clothes at one rehearsal when he got very excited."
Bono, describing Adam

"I've had enough of Irish-Americans who haven't been back to their homeland in 20 or 30 years who come up to me and talk about the resistance, the revolution back home...." -- Bono, Nov. 8, 1987

"I got a job as a petrol-pump attendant so that I could write when the cars weren't coming in. But then we had the oil crisis, and we had those queues for miles, and the cars just kept coming, so I quit." -- Bono, discussing his early teen years

"In the '90s, we started to have a go at ourselves. Some people preferred the other way, which was like, rebel throws rock through the glass case of some obvious evil. But it's the same thing in the end. Outside of the songs, we continued on the same path of protest, politically, that we'd always been on." -- Bono, 2000, on Zoo TV

"I don't want to leave Ireland. Without sounding overly patriotic, I love my country and where I come from, and want to live there." -- Bono

"It's saying, 'We are one, but we're not the same.' It's not saying we even want to get along, but that we have to get along together in this world if it is to survive. It's a reminder that we have no choice."
Bono, on "One"

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

"It's a very prestigious thing to be asked to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of this apolitical, very respected organization. Rock and roll must not be left out of that picture. And it isn't." -- Bono, 1986, about the Amnesty International "Conspiracy of Hope" tour

"Those of you in the back, can you hear us? Both of you?"
Bono, during the light-selling PopMart show in Jacksonville, FL

"I think we've got a relationship with our own audience, the U2 audience, that's quite elastic. I think they expect us to mess with them and their perception of the group, and that's what they want. They don't want to come and see just any old U2 show. It's gotta be a trip. It's gotta be some kind of roller-coaster ride."
Bono, discussing Zoo TV in 1993

"In the '90s, we started to have a go at ourselves. Some people preferred the other way, which was like, rebel throws rock through the glass case of some obvious evil. But it's the same thing in the end. Outside of the songs, we continued on the same path of protest, politically, that we'd always been on." -- Bono, 2000, on Zoo TV

"Nothing is impossible in America. Is that still true? Tell me the truth. It's true isn't it? Let me tell you something: You of all people can make it true again." Bono addressing Harvard University's Class Day

"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." Bono, 1979


"There's quite a party atmosphere whenever I announce we're going on tour. I don't take it personally."

"You can download an atmosphere and dial up a groove, but there's acertain magic when three musicians and a dyslexic get together and play in a room."

"I do enjoy being in a number one band, and I do enjoy the jet so I can get home while on tour, and I do enjoy hearing the record on the radio, so I don't want to come across as being down-in-the-mouth about being number one. I am on top of the world, it's just that something else is on top of me."

"That song 'Mofo' is hardcore. If I could put my whole life into one song, it'd be something close to that."


"He is a big mouth, and I find him a bit of a pain in the arse at times. But I can't help it, I am him!"

"I have actually sat down with people in bands who describe politicians as the anti-Christ and are sure that the Capitol is the domain for all anti-Christs. And I'm saying, You don't understand. These people get home really late. If they went into business, they'd be a lot wealthier. We should pay them more and expect more from them. I have to confess, I've got a respect for them that I really didn't expect."

"We want to beat the music industry at its own game by being successful and important within the industry without sacrificing one ounce of integrity or our honesty by doing it our way." -- Bono



"That was a religious outburst, contrasting the idea of Easter Sunday with the Easter Sunday when British paratroopers shot dead 13 protesters. It was naive. A lot of our work in the '80s was very naive. But I like that now. It's ecstatic music. It has a sense of wonder and a joy about it." About Sunday Bloody Sunday

"My earliest memory of Larry was when we were starting off. We were at our first rehearsal in his kitchen and all these girls kept climbing over the walls and looking in the window at Larry. Larry just shouted at them and told them to go away. And then turned the hose on them! Larry likes to play drums."

"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."

"I feel just too irresponsible. The kid would end up being my father. I'm the sort of guy where the son is sent out to fetch his dad and bring him home.... I'd just be afraid that if it were a boy, it would turn out like me." -- Bono, 1987, about the possibility of becoming a father

"I like them. I just find them unbearable to listen to, because I can hear the paranoia and the panic. Achtung Baby is full of it. Zooropa revolved around that great lyric by Edge, 'Numb'. And Pop is so fucking black. I can't think of a more un-pop record. I remember Larry saying after the sessions that maybe next time we should make an actual pop record." -- Bono, on U2's albums in the 90s

"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." -- Bono, 1993, on speaking his mind

"I never knew what I wanted to be. One day I'd wake up and want to be a chess player -- the best. I'd read a book on it, and at twelve I studied the grandmasters, and I was fascinated." -- Bono, 1987

"One thing I'm very sure about is that I am a spoiled rock star; I am overpaid, overnourished and overdressed. And I'm sure the work that I do at Jubilee 2000 and the work the band has done for Amnesty International is some kind of Catholic guilt, but it's working, so we'll continue with it." -- Bono, 2000

"And the Lord said 'Humble thyself, Bono!'"
Bono, 12/12/97