As a songwriter, you respect and appreciate the writings of other people, and I often get asked, are there songs out there I wish I’d written? Yes. There’s many of them!

Pound’s crazy. All poets are. They have to be. You don’t put a poet like Pound in the loony bin.

And the idea of just wandering off to a cafe with a notebook and writing and seeing where that takes me for awhile is just bliss.

I listen to music all day every day. I can’t not listen to music. It’s kind of scary how much I listen to music, but it’s what I love, and it’s all I care about, so I’m good with it.

I don’t really believe in the type of pressure that people are wanting to put on the type of music that I make.

Don’t get the impression that you arouse my anger. You see, one can only be angry with those he respects.

When I started Virgin from a basement in west London, there was no great plan or strategy. I didn’t set out to build a business empire… For me, building a business is all about doing something to be proud of, bringing talented people together and creating something that’s going to make a real difference to other people’s lives.

We must respect the other fellow’s religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.

Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.

The worst evil of disregard for some law is that it destroys respect for all law.

In 1995, I was diagnosed with cancer, and I had to practice what I preached. I had always said to ‚believe in God‘ and ‚don’t give up‘ to little kids who had been diagnosed with cancer. I then thought if I can’t call on that same God and same strength that I told people about, I would be a liar and a phony.

For me, money is not my definition of success. Inspiring people is a definition of success.

Music has to be sort of ignorable sometimes.

Educationists should build the capacities of the spirit of inquiry, creativity, entrepreneurial and moral leadership among students and become their role model.

The function of the artist is to invent, not to chronicle.

My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.

I’m gonna make what I want to make, and other people are gonna like what they’re gonna like. It doesn’t really matter.

I like to read books. I like to listen to music.

Doing the box set is one of those things where you get to rewrite your own history to some extent. We could take out some of the songs that we felt weren’t as strong as some of the others, so you look better.

I’d like to think you don’t stop being creative once you get happy.

I’m convinced that no one can amount to a damn in the arts if he becomes sweetly reasonable, seeing all sides of a picture, forgiving all sins.

I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.

You cannot be creative with people around you.

My mother would kill me if I posed nude! My mother raised me with certain standards.

Every man I meet is in some way my superior.

Life’s a fight. It’s a good fight of faith.

I never wanted to write the sort of song that said, ‚Look at how abnormal and crazy and out there I am, man!‘

Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.

Music will never go away, and I will never stop making music; it’s just what capacity or what arena you decide to do it.

Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.

Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm.

I experience a period of frightening clarity in those moments when nature is so beautiful. I am no longer sure of myself, and the paintings appear as in a dream.

I’ve written some great things. That’s a gift, but there’s consequences. Yeah, you get this great work, but you suffer. You really, really suffer.

That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.

Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Don’t give up the fight.

If I’d had good discipline, I might have gone into music.

It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind that determines which way we will go.

I really, truly believe that writing comes out of the body; of course, the mind is working as well, but it’s a double thing and that doubleness is united. I mean, you can’t separate persona from psyche; you just can’t do it.

I booked my first studio at like 12 or 13. Somewhere in that season of my life, singing along with the radio became me wanting to be on radio, you know.

That I am not a member of any Christian church is true; but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures, and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general, or of any denomination of Christians in particular.

Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.

Growing up, my grandmother did not want worldly music in the house. Then when I went out to California, I started listening to Spanish music, mostly Mexican music. But were I in Egypt, I would listen to the music of the people, or if I was in Italy, I’d listen to Italian music.

I believe that when you think of the negative, and you get up discouraged – ‚There’s nothing good in my future‘ – I really believe it almost ties the hands of God. God works where there’s an attitude of faith. I believe faith is all about hope.

As scientists, we step on the shoulders of science, building on the work that has come before us – aiming to inspire a new generation of young scientists to continue once we are gone.

It seemed like a very small possibility for me to become an artist. I didn’t have the need to be on the stage; I didn’t feel the need to be heard. I just needed to write.

I don’t like the name, U2, actually.

You know, as a writer, I’m more of a listener than a writer, cuz if I hear something I will write it down.

Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.

I hope that tomorrow we can all, wherever we are, join in expressing our grief at Diana’s loss, and gratitude for her all-too-short life. It is a chance to show to the whole world the British nation united in grief and respect.

In Hawaii, some of the biggest radio stations are reggae. The local bands are heavily influenced by Bob Marley.

With ideas it is like with dizzy heights you climb: At first they cause you discomfort and you are anxious to get down, distrustful of your own powers; but soon the remoteness of the turmoil of life and the inspiring influence of the altitude calm your blood; your step gets firm and sure and you begin to look – for dizzier heights.

For me, ‚risky‘ is revealing what really happened in my life through music. Risky is writing confessional songs and telling the true story about a person with enough details so everyone knows who that person is.

Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all they have.

No one was ever great without some portion of divine inspiration.

Teach not thy lip such scorn, for it was made For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.

We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.

Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

I have fun with ideas; I play with them.

Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument – learning to do your craft – that’s the most important thing! It’s not about what goes on in a computer!

I just try to write songs that people are going to have a dialogue about.

Art is man’s expression of his joy in labor.