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
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.
Hanging out with politicians and corporations is very unhip work. But I think that the U2 audience have turned out to be incredibly subtle in their understanding.
Technology is huge; I wanted to learn about it. People might say that's odd, but I think it's odd if artists aren't interested in the world around them. I'm always chasing that.
When you align yourself with God's purpose as described in the Scriptures, something special happens to your life.
It's annoying, but justice and equality are mates. Aren't they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain.
When you truly accept that those children in some far off place in the global village have the same value as you in God's eyes or even in just your eyes, then your life is forever changed; you see something that you can't un-see.
When a nation is over-reliant on one or two commodities like oil or precious minerals, corrupt government ministers and their dodgy associates hoard profits and taxes instead of properly allocating them to schools and hospitals.
Because you know when you first become famous, you start walking a little different because people are staring at you.
Actually oddly enough, I think my work, the activism, will be forgotten. And I hope it will. Because I hope those problems will have gone away.
But more than anything else, for the British folks Irish people were all terrorists. So when we went to Britain, it was always a lot of resistance to U2. And that's why we came to America.
My understanding of the Scriptures has been made simple by the person of Christ.
I'm never nervous.
I am, as a character, at times, a little overbearing. I recognize that.
You know, God has some really weird kids, and I find it hard to be in their company most of the time.
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.
I think ABBA have a pure joy to their music and that's what makes them extraordinary.
I don't like the name, U2, actually.
The job of art is to chase ugliness away.
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. Music keeps the heart porous in many ways.
I felt rich when I was 20 years old and my wife was paying my bills. Just being in a band, I've always felt blessed.
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.
It's not a coincidence that in the Scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It's not an accident. That's a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions.
Sub-Saharan Africa is also home to 400 million of the world's poorest people.
The extraction of oil, coal and minerals brought, and still brings, a cost to the environment.
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.
The French are so into themselves that they don't even notice you.
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.
I accept the Old Testament as more of an action movie: blood, car chases, evacuations, a lot of special effects, seas dividing, mass murder, adultery. The children of God are running amok, wayward. Maybe that's why they're so relatable.
Africa will thrive.
God's Spirit moves through us and the world at a pace that can never be constricted by any one religious paradigm.
Rock music is niche.
The great moments of rock 'n' roll were never off in some corner of the music world, in a self-constructed ghetto.
Overcoming my dad telling me that I could never amount to anything is what has made me the megalomaniac that you see today.
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.
I get to hear the really good or the really bad things in the press, but I don't read it. I can afford to say that because public opinion does not drive U2's audience.
Facebook are an amazing team, a brilliant team. It's a technology that brings people together.
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.
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.
I remember how my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays... and my father used to wait outside. One of the things that I picked up from my father and my mother was the sense that religion often gets in the way of God. For me, at least, it got in the way.
Happy the country that lives on nothing but its wits; cursed be the one that thinks it can get rich by planting or digging or drilling for wealth.
America is not just a country, it's an idea, and real Americans are getting busy.
Celebrity is ridiculous and silly and it's mad that people like me are listened to - you know, rap stars and movie stars.
Particularly conservative Christians, I was very angry that they were not involved more in the AIDS emergency.
Religion can be the enemy of God. It's often what happens when God, like Elvis, has left the building.
You've got to watch the politics of AIDS. The politics of AIDS can work both for and against the victims of AIDS.
Anyone that's involved in development has discovered that all the good work that's been done in development has been undone by the AIDS emergency.
So you cannot, as a Christian, walk away from Africa.
Selling out is doing something you don't really want to do for money. That's what selling out is.
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.
