I’ve seen zero evidence of any nation on Earth other than Mexico even remotely having the slightest clue what Mexican food is about or even come close to reproducing it. It is perhaps the most misunderstood country and cuisine on Earth.

As long as my music is real, it’s no limit to how many ears I can grab.

The worst crime is faking it.

A person who is truly authentic doesn’t need to play a role in life, we think, but can simply be him – or herself.

I’m not always going to say things the perfect way, the right way. But I’m going to say how I feel.

I had a lot of resistance, and not just to fame. I was always conscious of not changing.

For a creative writer possession of the ‚truth‘ is less important than emotional sincerity.

I wish they would only take me as I am.

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.

There’s poetry in being the band that can sell out Wembley but also makes a record in a garage. I don’t like doing what people expect me to do.

I’ve had this terrible stomach problem for years, and that has made touring difficult. People would see me sitting in the corner by myself looking sick and gloomy. The reason is that I was trying to fight against the stomach pain, trying to hold my food down. People looked me and assumed I was some kind of addict.

Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.

I’d rather tell you how I really feel.

I feel like the reason people feel like they know me is because I’m giving you myself in the music. There’s where the connection comes from; you can’t Twitter that.

There’s a gap between what I want to do, what I do on camera, and what gets edited. Right? So the goal is to try and close the gaps. What’s the biggest compliment is if I read a review and it’s exactly what I wrote down in my diary before ever filming it. That’s really cool. That’s the biggest signifier of closing the gaps.

Why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.

Be content to seem what you really are.

Nobody in Singapore drinks Singapore Slings. It’s one of the first things you find out there. What you do in Singapore is eat. It’s a really food-crazy culture, where all of this great food is available in a kind of hawker-stand environment.

Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.

It’s easier to aim to please and say what others want to hear than to form an opinion and fight for it, even if it means taking a risk or losing your job.

Sometimes we be playing the politics too much and forget who we are just to win.

I’ve lived a very colorful life, and I’ve said some things, But not once have I taken them back, and I’ve never apologized for them – and I won’t.

I love food.

I want people to understand they have to live their own lives the way they want to and not just do what we do.

Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display?

I live halfway between reality and theater at all times. And I was born this way.

If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.

Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.

I’m not really good at fun-to-know, human interest stuff. We’re not ‚celebrities‘, whose life itself is a performance. Good or bad or ugly, we are our words. They’re what people meet.

Don’t make me into this airy-fairy, moralist, idealist because I’m not.

My thing is this; if I’m sick enough to think it, then I’m sick enough to say it.

There’s just some magic in truth and honesty and openness.

When the whole world has their eyes on you, if you say something that doesn’t truly come from your spirit and your soul, or if you wear something that doesn’t come from your spirit and your soul, it’s an injustice to your position. And so, I’m really myself every single day and I do it because I know my fans would want me to.

Truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it, else it is none.

I never do anything that I don’t want to do.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

I don’t like it when people who are young act like they’re 40. That’s taking too much on. Putting up a shield and trying to act like you’re so mature or whatever – I don’t try to act mature. Some people might say I’m mature for my age, but it’s not something I’m trying to do, you know? I’m just me.

My life is real.

You’re not going to scare me into being somebody I don’t want to be.

The difficult thing is that vulnerability is the first thing I look for in you and the last thing I’m willing to show you. In you, it’s courage and daring. In me, it’s weakness.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

Whatever I am, it’s natural… I don’t have to pretend to be aggressive, don’t have to show the opposition that I am on the field. Being aggressive comes naturally to me, helps me perform.

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

Friends accept you the way you are.

There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible that in any profane history.

Real life is the life that’s in you, not your circumstances, like where you live or what job you have or who you’re in relationship with.

I feel like in my music I can be a rebel. I can say things I wouldn’t say in real life.

I pay attention to lyrics and I know what rap fans care about. I try to write for the average listener and I’m conscious of the mainstream without selling out.

I am who I am. That’s why my friends and peers respect and appreciate me. I don’t change or cater my actions to fit my surroundings. I’m myself 24/7. People appreciate that.

The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.

The truth is, I’ve never fooled anyone. I’ve let men sometimes fool themselves.

I looked the people of Louisiana in the eye and told them exactly what I thought in terms that normal people use.

I just have a thing in my brain that when I’m about to do something that’s genuine or authentic, I think of it in song form. I’ll be like, ‚Yo, this is a human emotion that no one talks about.‘

I’m sticking to the script, I’m putting that organic feeling back in the game.

My parents were the same in the pulpit as they were at home. I think that’s where a lot of preachers‘ kids get off base sometimes. Because they don’t see the same things at both places.

I have been influenced in my thinking by both west and east.

To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets.

Better understated than overstated. Let people be surprised that it was more than you promised and easier than you said.

I’m different from any other designer, businesswise, in that I’ve built this company up and I own it. I never had business hype behind me to promote my image… My image is real… I have never had marketing people telling me what to do.

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.