Bono

“Religion can be the enemy of God. It's often what happens when God, like Elvis, has left the building.”

— Bono

“Overcoming my dad telling me that I could never amount to anything is what has made me the megalomaniac that you see today.”

— Bono

“Selling out is doing something you don't really want to do for money. That's what selling out is.”

— 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

“Rock music is niche.”

— Bono

“Rock 'n' roll is ridiculous. It's absurd. In the past, U2 was trying to duck that. Now we're wrapping our arms around it and giving it a great big kiss.”

— 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

“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.”

— 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

“Music can change the world because it can change people.”

— Bono

“I think ABBA have a pure joy to their music and that's what makes them extraordinary.”

— Bono

“Sub-Saharan Africa is also home to 400 million of the world's poorest people.”

— Bono

“The great moments of rock 'n' roll were never off in some corner of the music world, in a self-constructed ghetto.”

— Bono

“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.”

— Bono

“To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater.”

— Bono

“U2 is an original species... there are colours and feelings and emotional terrain that we occupy that is ours and ours alone.”

— Bono

“You've got to watch the politics of AIDS. The politics of AIDS can work both for and against the victims of AIDS.”

— Bono

“Because you know when you first become famous, you start walking a little different because people are staring at you.”

— 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

“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.”

— Bono