You could go directly to the following sections if you want..
Bono on Bono
Bono on the Edge
Bono on Adam
Bono on Larry
Bono on Beginnings
Bono on the Creed
Bono on Religion
Bono on Ireland
Bono on Songwriting
Bono on the Albums
Bono on Rock'n'Roll
Bono on the Fame Game
Bono on the Future
Bono On Bono
"When I talk about love I'm thinking of unselfish love. Sex can be bought and sold just like anything else. But I think real love is about giving and not expecting anything in return." February 1983
"I think the music is much better than the musician, but also the audience is as much applauding itself as us. One of the things people forget about these large concerts is that the audience have heard the records, it knows the songs from the radio and the music has become part of their lives. When they hear those songs their own selves are caught up in them and they are in some way applauding the connection." June 1985
"I use our songs to wake myself up. It's like sticking a needle in your leg after it has gone to sleep." January 1986
"Everyone argues, then we do what I say." March 1987
"I break out in cold sweat at the thought of drawing out money. It's bereaucracy. Whether to choose the blue slip or...those kind of decisions are impossible! Going to a supermarket nearly gives me a breakdown! I can write three verses for a song sitting in the bath, but Post Offices make me go weak at the knees." December 1987
"Where's my public? My God, they've deserted me! This is a crisis. We'd better do something. Stir up some publicity or something. 'Bono in under-age sex orgy.' That should do it. I want my public back." December 1987
"It's an amazing feeling, to be able to do what you want, when you want. And that is, you don't have to kiss ass, you know that feeling? There's a lot of people out there have to kiss ass every day, every week - just to make a, you know, a buck. Just to...and I don't. I have to kiss Edge's ass occasionally, maybe Larry, but you know..."
"People ask me such serious questions - and I answer them. I'm that dumb."
Bono On The Edge
"I think that Edge is the head of the band, I'm the heart, and Adam and Larry are the feet." May 1981
"When we started it was hard to get the Edge to play aggressively. He is a gentleman and he plays guitar like a gentleman." February 1982
"The Edge is a really, really intense guy, he's got this incredibly high IQ, he's great at sorting out issues of worldly importance, it's just that he forgets the everyday things, like the chords of songs, where he is and so on." January 1983
Bono On Adam
"Adam is a very melodic bass player. He doesn't play the usual lines." February 1982
"Adam literally got me by the scruff of the neck and roped me into U2. I didn't really want to be in a band. I was only into it for the sake of the sound of electric guitar, drums, bass and singing. So when he started talking about actually playing gigs I thought,'What, y'mean playing gigs in front of other people?' The thought had never dawned on me. But Adam believed in the band before anyone elde did - he'd made up his mind at 15 or 16 that rock'n'roll was what he was going to do." 1988
Bono On Larry
"My earliest memory of Larry was when we were starting off. We were at our first rehearsal in his kitchen and all these girls, all these 14 and 15 year old girls kept climbing over the walls and looking in at the windows at Larry. Larry just shouted at them to go away and then turned the hose on them. He's not interested in being a pop star. Larry likes to play the drums." May 1981
"Larry is the core of U2. He never does interviews. He just gets on with his life the way he always has. He still enjoys being back home with his mates." 1987
Bono On Beginnings
"I was one of those kids it was impossible to tie down from the very beginning. People used to - and family still do - put up the cross whenever I came in. They called me the Antichrist at age 8!" November 1987
"I had the loudest mouth. When we formed the group I was the lead guitar player, singer and songwriter. Nobody talked back at first. But then they talked me out of being lead guitar player and into being rhythm guitar player and into just being the singer. And then they tried to talk me out of being the singer and into being the manager. But I held on to that. Arrogance may have been the reason." May 1983
Bono On The Creed
"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." October 1981
"As a band we have a giant collective ego. It picks us up. Anyway, I don't think I'd be a good bank clerk. Or a hot dog salesman. I might be a good president." February 1982
"We don't allow people to make jokes in our company. Anyone on the crew who's ever seen with a smile on their faces we let go." May 1985
"What has kept us together? Fear of our manager!" February 1987
"All over America they had set up these clubs where they listen to U2 records and actually write cards for Amnesty. If you can inspire something on that scale, that's everything I could ask for. All in fact, I would ask for." November 1987
Bono On Religion
"I think the church is a big problem." February 1981
"I met this guy once in a mental hospital I was visiting. He introduced himself as Jesus Christ. I just said, 'Haven't we met before?' He said nothing. I asked him why, if he was the son of God, was he in a mental hospital? He said, 'Because it's my 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness.' At that point I just cracked up. I asked him when the end of the world was going to come. He said April 1. I thought, 'Brilliant, pencil it into the diary. The world will end on April Fools' Day. Perfect.' " December 1987
"All the best songs are co-written by God, y'know!" 1987
"All our songs are about God or women, and we often get the two mixed up."
Bono On Ireland
"The traffic is very fast here in London - the lights go green, and wham! they move off. In Dublin they'll cough, scratch and then away they go. It's like Dublin's in a constant state of amber." November 1979
"I would love to see a united Ireland, but I never could support a man who put a gun to somebody's head to see that dream come true." July 1987
Bono On Songwriting
"I didn't really begin spending a lot of time on lyrics until halfway into the Eighties." September 1993
"I don't know if any one song is the best song ever written. I find it very hard to listen to our songs because I have no real objectivity but I find the ones I like most are usually the ones that came the easiest."
Bono On The Albums
"I listened to it last week for the first time in ages and I couldn't believe I was part of it. It's a huge record, I couldn't cope with it. I remember the pressure it was made under, I remember writing lyrics on the microphone and at £50 an hour that's quite a pressure. Lillywhite was pacing up and down the studio...he coped really well. And the ironic thing about 'October' is that there's a kind of peace about the album even though it was recorded under that pressure." February 1982
"We broke up the band after 'War'. We literally broke up the band and formed another band with the same name and the same members. That's what we did. We had all those teething problems that you have when you start a new band." January 1985
"'Pride' is the best song we've evr written. We've done very few songs...normally we just make music. 'I Will Follow' was a song, but then the next one wasn't until 'Sunday Bloody Sunday'. It's very different from the rest of the album though - there's nothing on there as straight as this." November 1984
"In the song 'With or Without You' when it says 'and you give yourself away' - everybody else in the group knows what that means. It's about how I feel in U2 at times - exposed."
"Greg Carroll ( to whom the Joshua Tree is dedicated ) was almost flesh and blood with U2. We met him in Auckland, New Zealand...and he worked with us on 'The Unforgettable Fire' Tour...he was one of those guys you say is too good for this world. We haven't and I don't think we ever will, get over his loss. And he died doing me a favour. I don't know what to say. He further made 1986 the most paradoxical year in our lives. That's why the desert attracted me as an image. That year was really a desert for us, it was a terrible time. Death is a real cold shower and I've had a lot. It's followed me around since I was a kid and I don't want to see any more of it." March 1987
"What other band in our position would learn the chords of 'All Along The Watchtowr' five minutes before they went on-stage, play it live and record it? No one." October 1988
"It's a con! It's a con. It's just a way of putting people off from the fact that it's a heavy mother. It's probably our most serious record - and yet it's got the least serious title. And it just fooled everyone. They all thought we were, you know, we'd lightened up. Which is totally untrue. We're miserable bastards." March 1992
"(Lemon looks at) the power of imagination, the mind taking off in two different directions - in a Studio 54, Disco Duck setting. The falsetto was completely natural. I've always felt there was a fat woman trying to burst out of me. Don't know what Freud would make of that!" September 1993
Bono On Rock'n'Roll
"I'm not stupid. I'm aware of the futility of rock'n'roll music, but I'm also aware of its power."
"The world of rock'n'roll is as black as a mine but you could find a jeweldown there to make it all worthwhile."
"I think it would be rude and ignorant to say money isn't important to me because money is so important to a lot of people because they don't have it and I know I have it and I'm lucky and I thank God that I have money."
"People see a suite in the top of a hotel in Chicago and think it must be the most incredible place to be. But the more plush the surroundings, the poorer you feel in spirit sometimes."
"The difference between pop and rock'n'roll is that the pop star gets the nose job."
Bono On The Fame Game
"I get people throwing too much responsibility on me. People literally arriving to die on my front lawn. People coming from all over the world to pinch a pair of y-fronts off my line." July 1987
"Anyone who needs 50,000 people a night to tell them they're OK has to have a bit missing. And I do mean that in terms of your sense of self, not necessarily in terms of sanity. And I don't think you start out that way but, as with Elvis, it's a place you can get to easily." August 1993
Bono On The Future
"As long as the records keep getting better, we'll keep together. As soon as they get worse, I'm off." April 1992
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