Quotes from Bono

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

At a certain point, I just felt, you know, God is not looking for alms, God is looking for action.

In my dream, I was drowning my sorrows But my sorrows they learned to swim

It is impossible to meet God without abandon, without exposing yourself, being raw.

Whenever I see grace, I'm moved.

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

Laughter is eternity if joy is real.

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.

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.

I wish to begin again on a daily basis. To be born again every day is something that I try to do. And I'm deadly serious about that.

I think 'Invisible' is a great song, but I don't know how accessible it is.

I believe that Jesus was, you know, the Son of God. And I understand that... we need to be really, really respectful to people who find that ridiculous and... preposterous.

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

It's much easier to be successful than it is to be relevant. The tricks won't keep you relevant. Tricks might keep you popular for a while, but in all honesty, I don't know how U2 will stay relevant. I know we've got a future. I know we can fill stadiums. And yet with every record, I think, 'Is this it? Are we still relevant?'

Facts, like people, want to be free - and when they're free, liberty is usually around the corner.

Poverty breeds despair. We know this. Despair breeds violence. We know this. In turbulent times, isn't it cheaper, and smarter, to make friends out of potential enemies than to defend yourself against them later?

What turns me on about the digital age, what excited me personally, is that you have closed the gap between dreaming and doing. You see, it used to be that if you wanted to make a record of a song, you needed a studio and a producer. Now, you need a laptop.

What really turns me on about technology is not just the ability to get more songs on MP3 players. The revolution - this revolution - is much bigger than that. I hope, I believe. What turns me on about the digital age, what excites me personally, is that you have closed the gap between dreaming and doing.

Ethiopia didn't just blow my mind; it opened my mind. Anyway, on our last day at this orphanage a man handed me his baby and said, 'Would you take my son with you?' He knew, in Ireland, that his son would live, and that in Ethiopia, his son would die.