Quotes from Bono

I like my heroes to be alive," she told me. "I like them to grow old." I, too, admire my idols more for the lines on their faces, for the bumps and bruises, the cuts and scar tissue.

Andrew Rowen would end up in three U2 songs, "Running to Stand Still," as well as "Bad" and "Raised by Wolves.

I'm drawn to conversation because in the best kind you don't know where you're going, only that you will get somewhere good.

Live your love is the right answer. I hold to that line attributed to Francis of Assisi, who told his followers, "Go into the world to preach the gospel and, if necessary, use words." We need less to be told how to live our lives and more to see people living inspirational lives.

There is no them. There's only us.

We begin by looking out for our children, and in time, if we are so blessed, we find they are looking out for us.

We were inhabiting a space where it didn't feel like we had much company, a space critics might dismiss as a compromised middle, but I imagined as a radical center.

It is not an exaggeration to say U2 began to write our own songs because we couldn't play other people's. Baby steps for a baby band.

Taste is the enemy of a good death.

now appreciate that that was a very Bob Dylan thing to do, to turn the tables completely. Bumping into Bob Dylan? What's that like? It's like bumping into Willie Shakespeare. I knew I was on hallowed ground, if not on solid ground. I was not worthy to tie the laces of his moccasins, but I caught my balance and challenged him to a chess game. That's right—a chess game. Bob Dylan had invited me backstage, to

Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief. All kill their inspiration and sing about their grief.

El fracaso es cuando les das la razón a tus enemigos al confirmarles que hacían bien en tenerte en la lista negra.

The search for common ground starts with the search for higher ground - even with your opponents...especially with your opponents.

Once we are born, we begin to forget The very reason we came But you I'm sure I've met Long before the night the stars went out We're meeting up again.

which begs a question. What precisely is genius? I believe that genius is not a person but a process, a process in which someone determines to uncover their gift and, for a period, is able to step inside it. The "gift" is a self-explanatory state, and like a prize awarded in a DNA lotto—say, being born into beauty or into wealth—genius is no reason for arrogance.

Masons, when they start upon a building, Are careful to test out the scaffolding; Make sure that planks won't slip at busy points, Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints. And yet all this comes down when the job's done Showing off walls of sure and solid stone. So if, my dear, there sometimes seems to be Old bridges breaking between you and me Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall Confident that we have built our wall.

Yeats got it. O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance?

the only true way to be victorious is to surrender. To each other. To love. To the higher power.

It was a line on our second album, October, that led from one record to the other. In 1981, a young man, I'd sung, "I can't change the world but I can change the world in me." Now, in my fifties, I found myself writing something different: "I can change the world, but I can't change the world in me.

The neo-Nazi expects to be met with violence on the street; this is the language of their mollified machismo, the sex appeal, especially for young men. Mockery can be a delightfully dangerous weapon. Dada unzips the fascist male and pulls down his combat pants, exposing him to ridicule.

U2's music was never really rock 'n' roll. Under its contemporary skin it's opera—a big music, big emotions unlocked in the pop music of the day. A tenor out front who won't accept he's a baritone. A small man singing giant songs. Wailing, keening, trying to explain the unexplainable. Trying to release himself and anyone who will listen from the prison of a human experience that cannot explain grief.

Listen to me now I need to let you know You don't have to go it alone And it's you when I look in the mirror And it's you when I don't pick up the phone Sometimes you can't make it on your own

I am a baritone who thinks he's a tenor.

I remain more suspicious of religion than most people who'd never darken the door of a church.