Top 55 Bono Quotes

Words matter. These are the best Bono Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.

Books! I dunno if I ever told you this, but books are t

Books! I dunno if I ever told you this, but books are the greatest gift one person can give another.
Bono
Until it’s on the radio or online, it’s not real. With U2, our album isn’t finished until it’s in the stores.
Bono
Contrary to reports, this boy is not a billionaire or going to be richer than any Beatle… and not just in the sense of money, by the way; the Beatles are untouchable – those billionaire reports are a joke.
Bono
I don’t like the name, U2, actually.
Bono
The great moments of rock ‘n’ roll were never off in some corner of the music world, in a self-constructed ghetto.
Bono
It’s so sweet, I feel like my teeth are rotting when I listen to the radio.
Bono
There’s nothing hippie about my picture of Christ. The Gospels paint a picture of a very demanding, sometimes divisive love, but love it is.
Bono
I’m the man that brought you the mullet.
Bono
As a musician and a songwriter, it is an act of the ego to believe that other people might be interested in your point of view. But it is usually an empathetic nature that gets you going in the first place.
Bono
As hard as it is, as ghetto as it is, hip-hop is pop music. It’s the sound of music getting out of the ghetto, while rock is looking for a ghetto.
Bono
The only person who ever called me Paul was my father, so I always associate it with doing something wrong, you know. So, you know, occasionally, people will come up to me on the street and try to, you know, ingratiate themselves and call me Paul. I don’t like it, actually.
Bono
I’m never nervous.
Bono
You see, idealism detached from action is just a dream. But idealism allied with pragmatism, with rolling up your sleeves and making the world bend a bit, is very exciting. It’s very real. It’s very strong.
Bono
When people say, you know, ‘Good teacher,’ ‘Prophet,’ ‘Really nice guy’… this is not how Jesus thought of Himself. So you’re left with a challenge in that, which is either Jesus was who he said he was or a complete and utter nut case. You have to make a choice on that.
Bono
So what we’re talking about here is human rights. The right to live like a human. The right to live, period. And what we’re facing in Africa is an unprecedented threat to human dignity and equality.
Bono
I really have had to swallow my own prejudice at times.
Bono
What I like about pop music, and why I’m still attracted to it, is that in the end it becomes our folk music.
Bono
God’s Spirit moves through us and the world at a pace that can never be constricted by any one religious paradigm. I love that.
Bono
You see, Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice. It makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties. It doubts our concern. It questions our commitment. Because there is no way we can look at what’s happening in Africa, and if we’re honest, conclude that it would ever be allowed to happen anywhere else.
Bono
I have been working for Africans since I was 18, when I got involved with the Nelson Mandela concerts. I got involved with debt cancellation because Desmond Tutu demanded that the world respond to that situation.
Bono
Music keeps the heart porous in many ways.
Bono
Religion can be the enemy of God. It’s often what happens when God, like Elvis, has left the building.
Bono
But with Christ, we have access in a one-to-one relationship, for, as in the Old Testament, it was more one of worship and awe, a vertical relationship. The New Testament, on the other hand, we look across at a Jesus who looks familiar, horizontal. The combination is what makes the Cross.
Bono
I always think if you are asking somebody for something it is a good idea to give them something first.
Bono
I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did – or did not do – to put the fire out in Africa. History, like God, is watching what we do.
Bono
Facebook are an amazing team, a brilliant team. It’s a technology that brings people together.
Bono
As a rock star, I have two instincts, I want to have fun, and I want to change the world. I have a chance to do both.
Bono
Selling out is doing something you don’t really want to do for money. That’s what selling out is.
Bono
Jesus isn’t lettin’ you off the hook. The Scriptures don’t let you off the hook so easily… When people say, you know, ‘Good teacher’, ‘Prophet’, ‘Really nice guy’ … this is not how Jesus thought of Himself.
Bono
My understanding of the Scriptures has been made simple by the person of Christ. Christ teaches that God is love.
Bono
Sub-Saharan Africa is also home to 400 million of the world’s poorest people.
Bono
Where you live in the world should not determine whethe

Where you live in the world should not determine whether you live in the world.
Bono
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.
Bono
Rock stars are good at making noise.
Bono
I think carrying moral baggage is very dangerous for an artist. If you have a duty, it’s to be true and not cover up the cracks.
Bono
U2’s best work has always been when we didn’t know what we’re doing.
Bono
At the heart of the Irish economy has always been the philosophy of tax competitiveness. On the cranky left, that is very annoying; I can see that.
Bono
U2 is an original species… there are colours and feelings and emotional terrain that we occupy that is ours and ours alone.
Bono
The job of art is to chase ugliness away.
Bono
I think ‘Invisible’ is a great song, but I don’t know how accessible it is.
Bono
I used to love Kurt Cobain, when he was telling people we’re a pop band. People would laugh, they thought of it as good old ironic Kurt. But he wasn’t being ironic.
Bono
Africa will thrive.
Bono
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.
Bono
Mandela’s heroism is the heroism of a man who suffered so badly for what he thought of as freedom. And yet when he had the upper hand he has this incredible self-control and these incredible leadership qualities.
Bono
I don’t let my religious world get too complicated.
Bono
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?’
Bono
Africa is a continent in flames. And deep down, if we really accepted that Africans were equal to us, we would all do more to put the fire out. We’re standing around with watering cans, when what we really need is the fire brigade.
Bono
If you pour your life into songs, you want them to be heard. It’s a desire to communicate. A deep desire to communicate inspires songwriting.
Bono
U2 is sort of song writing by accident really. We don’t really know what we’re doing and when we do, it doesn’t seem to help.
Bono
The French are so into themselves that they don’t even notice you.
Bono
God’s Spirit moves through us and the world at a pace that can never be constricted by any one religious paradigm.
Bono
Particularly conservative Christians, I was very angry that they were not involved more in the AIDS emergency.
Bono
America is not just a country, it’s an idea, and real Americans are getting busy.
Bono
If September 11th has taught us anything, it’s certainly that the world has never been so interdependent. It is impossible now to be an island of prosperity in a sea of despair.
Bono
It’s a privilege to serve the poor, to be servants of noble Africans, but I better belong in the rehearsal room or in the studio with my band. That’s where I want to be and I still wake up in the morning with melodies in my head.
Bono