Deep Thoughts by Bono
On Accomadations:
"I'm up at the top of a really tall building, which is pretty cool, and there's an airplane flying low, it's really mad. Ireland is not really renown for its tall buildings, so this is a quite a thing."
On Concealed Weapons:
"He was so cool, he came down, he had these fly shades on -- mad goggles. And we were asking him about his guns as you do and I said, `Are you packin?' and Bill, he says (imitating Burroughs' growly, sing-song voice), `No, I'm not packin' but I'm pretty handy with my cane.' And he unscrews the handle and he has a two-foot saber in there." (what does "mad" mean, anyway? a 60's thing?)
On Reluctance:
"I thought that the spirit of the group was a bit hesistant, I could see people were a bit freaked. But I quite like that. I actually quite like the fact that there was a little bit of -- certainly from the band -- the rabbit in the headlights. I think that's okay because it is rock 'n' roll. It's not fu--in' Broadway." (rabbit?)
On Rhythms:
"An amazing tom-tom thing and it became almost salsa, like a slowed down salsa. What would you call it? Portuguese ... Man of War! I love that Portuguese Man Of War beat, that's my favorite. That's really happening here in New York." (the term is bossa nova.)
On Unmentionables:
"There's Belgians making our underwear, actually great underwear. This guy Walt is a genuis. He's the man. He's kicking Gaultier's butt. He's like a Hell's Angels guy and he has great underwear he's designed. And on the front of them it says, `F-- the past,' and on the back, `Kiss the future.' I dread to think what was going on in Walt's mind when he came up with that, but for me it's a great statement about where we're at."
On Stage Effects:
"The first night Edge was in a cloud of dry ice when he got out of the lemon and I couldn't see him, but I knew he wasn't playing his guitar when he should have been. And I didn't know what to do exactly. And then I just heard this giggling. He was laughing his head off. I caught him through the fog. There is just a smidgen of (Spinal Tap's) Derek Smalls about him at the moment. But listen, that's balls. Brazen hussies we are. There's not another rock band in the world -- maybe because they're too smart to -- who would dare to do that. And I'm telling ya, that's it for me."
On Oppression:
"I spent the '80s being a bit freaked out, to be honest with you. 'Cause it is a bit odd when you've got all this stuff that everybody else wants and you try your best to be responsible to your music and your muse. Your head is spinning and then you start to realize that if you're cut off from what's happening to you, it's like a tourniquet on the music. You have to write about what's happening to you, that's the way. And that's not, of course, just hotel bedrooms and late night truck stops, but actually the subject of being in a band, the subject of stardom, fame, celebrity, is an oppressive thing, right now, in the world, it's up there with religion and banking. It's the new oppression, so it's a subject worth talking about."
On Writing Style:
"After we made the record (POP), I was reading a book on Kerouac and he was talking about smoking spliff or something and literally praying for a vision of a new kind of writing for himself that would be both trashy and transcendent. And I thought, `Yeah, that's it. I'm not wrong here.' "
On The Band:
"We were playing in a ballroom in Washington, just rehearsing without anyone around, even our road crew had gone, and they're such a band. They are the sh--. This is a great group and we've been in this since we were boys and it's like I'm still amazed on one level that we haven't been found out. But when I was in the ballroom, like I was the other day, with them, I think it's actually real. We can actually play."
On Lyrical Content
"You write what's in your heart and on your mind, unless of course it's crap, which means you thought about it too much."
On Rock Today:
"Rock and roll albums are not selling at the moment. And there's a reason for that -- they're boring."
On Shyness:
"Just as a general rule, I don't buy the `I'm shy and I just happen to be the singer in a rock band' line. Because I think if you're shy there's a lot of other things you might do, you might make films or become a potter."
On Writing and Releasing Songs:
"The thing that's really, really taking me away at the moment is just writing tunes and singing them and playing in the band. There's nothing as fun as it, 'cause you wake up one morning with a melody in your head and a few months later it's on the radio in Tokyo. It is remarkable still to me."
On Roles he'd Like to Play:
"The top of the food chain are not actors but stand-up comics. They're telling things the way they are without people even noticing. I would love to play that part. Another part I'd like to play is (Irish writer) Brendan Behan 'cause I could then really go through my fat Elvis period."
On the Future of U2:
"I think there is going to be time when we should strip down to get more space to the music but not to go back to f--in' folk-rock. I'd hate that. I mean, one or two tunes is fine. But just as an overall game plan, I'm just excited about the future now."