One U2 Quotes & Sayings

One night, I was out driving with a few friends of mine when the police pulled us over. We were told we fit the description of someone who had committed a robbery or stolen a car, though I don't really know what kind of description that could have been: three black kids in a Hyundai blasting U2's Joshua Tree on their way back from Bible study? — Ahmir Questlove Thompson

It's much easier to be successful than it is to be relevant. The tricks won't keep you relevant. Tricks might keep you popular for a while, but in all honesty, I don't know how U2 will stay relevant. I know we've got a future. I know we can fill stadiums. And yet with every record, I think, 'Is this it? Are we still relevant?' — Bono

I just don't get that new hot music. I don't know anything about all these groups like U2. — Jennifer Grey

I can't believe the news today
Oh, I can't close my eyes
And make it go away
How long ...
How long must we sing this song
How long, how long ...
'cause tonight ... we can be as one
Tonight ...
Broken bottles under children's feet
Bodies strewn across the dead end street
But I won't heed the battle call
It puts my back up
Puts my back up against the wall
Sunday, Bloody Sunday — U2

Now U2's not my favorite band, but I do respect them, and in the same way I respect Bowie: They change without fear of change. — Trent Reznor

Wouldn't that be funny, if the oil rebels were playing U2 in their jungle camps, and the government soldiers were playing U2 in their trucks. I think everyone was killing everyone else and listening to the same music ... That is a good trick about this world, Sarah. No one likes each other, but everyone likes U2. — Chris Cleave

Something I've learned from people like U2, the Stones and Lenny Kravitz is that the grind of live shows is so necessary [to build your career]. — Alicia Keys

All the beauty that's been lost before wants to find us again — U2

And she's like, you know, the 'Grace' in U2's song, the one that 'carries the world on her hips'." - Diana Rigsby, M.D. Ph.D. — L.A. Kragie

No one is blinder than he who will not see. — U2

U2 are a great band; they've given us an unbelievable body of work, and all of us musicians owe them at least something. I can honestly say that every time I have played the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, as soon as my drums are set up, I go into the beat of 'Sunday Bloody Sunday.' — Jimmy Chamberlin

I'm a huge stadium rock fan, but I'm also a fan of everything from Massive Attack to Peter Gabriel, U2, the Police, Radiohead, and Coldplay. — Tom DeLonge

When ABBA broke up, I assumed our music would fall into oblivion so in the early 90's with BJRN AGAIN becoming popular and when U2 invited Benny and I on stage to sing Dancing Queen, I just assumed we were being sent up. But now I see they were paying tribute to us — Bjorn Ulvaeus

The great music for so many artists - the Beatles, the Rolling Stones - was always at the moment when they were closest to pop. It would be easy for U2 to go off and have a concept album, but I want us to stay in the pop fray. — Bono

You can dream, so dream out loud. — U2

Life is a musical influence in my experience. But as far as actual music and actual bands, uh, I'll just look at my little collection here. Let's see. Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, U2, The Talking Heads, Prince and the Revolution, Michael Jackson's Thriller was a huge one. — Jeremy Enigk

I don't like the name, U2, actually. — Bono

There is a silence that comes to a house when no one can sleep. I guess it's the price of love; I know it's not cheap. — U2

Punk rock party in a suburban home/
everybody's famous here but nobody's known/ — U2

I've never been asked to do a collaboration. I guess I just don't give off that come-and-get-me vibe. I wouldn't be adverse to doing one with Coldplay or U2 - anyone who sells 50 million albums. — Noel Gallagher

There was a band in Australia named Midnight Oil, and they were a very, very political, and they literally hit you over the head with a hammer. U2 sometimes can hit you over the head with a rubber hammer. — Meat Loaf

Playlist 1. Wild Honey - U2 2. Like Real People Do - Hozier 3. Colorblind - Counting Crows 4. Oh Darling - Gossling 5. Breathing Underwater - Metric 6. Let It Die - Foo Fighters 7. I'm Sorry - Imagine Dragons 8. Fools - Troye Sivan 9. Don't Mess Me Around - Clare Maguire 10. Heal - Tom Odell 11. Unbreakable - Jamie Scott 12. I'm The Man Who Loves You - Wilco 13. Creep - Radiohead — B.L. Berry

One life, you've got to do what you should — U2

I think Paul McGuinness and U2 created the Irish music industry. It certainly wasn't there before that. — Van Morrison

U2 - that's a band that never should have existed. There's no life experience in any of their songs. — John Lydon

There are a lot of bands that have a huge appeal, but I don't understand why. Guns n' Roses. U2. But you know, that's just my thing. Music is pretty personal. — Ric Ocasek

U2's best work has always been when we didn't know what we're doing. — Bono

There's only one band that could ever even pretend to assume the mantle of what the Beatles did, who have been so pre-eminent and world-dominating that they could effect a paradigm shift in the culture, who have been willing to leverage their success into musical change, and that is U2 - regardless of what the result of that is. — Todd Rundgren

I don't dislike my peers because they're still around and remind me of what I'm doing. I never liked them anyway. I never liked U2, the things they've done over the years. — Robert Smith

When I remixed U2's "Even Better Than the Real Thing," that was a big moment and turning point for me. One of my remixes became "the big remix" for them and then I went on tour and was living on the road with them for six months. — Paul Oakenfold

In Ireland, it's been like U2 and The Cranberries, which is rock, but you know they're Irish. — Caroline Corr

When you see U2 or the Rolling Stones, after years of knowing each other, they don't have to look at each other to connect. — Jerrod Carmichael

I'm still digging long-established bands like U2 - they're new to me! — Ronnie Wood

I grew up with Frank Sinatra and it has taken me a long time to get to a place where I really enjoy [U2's] music. — Ali Hewson

I'm just getting people warmed up a little bit at a time, a little bit at a time, so I can fully come with, like, a 'Fix You' - type record, or 'One' by U2. — Clinton Sparks

U2 and folks like that. They all have that similar drive and that belief in themselves. They're early birds ... they're up working when everyone else is sleeping. They're simply all great at what they do. — Paul Oakenfold

The right to be ridiculous is something I hold dear ... — U2

Don't believe what you hear, don't believe what you see.
If you just close your eyes.
You can feel the enemy. — U2

We stay in U2's hotel. They bought a hotel, The Clarence, a nice place and it's in an area where everything's happening, so many fantastic restaurants and bars and the people are so friendly. — Bonnie Tyler

Nirvana's amazing, but they're just never going to find another one, there's no artist development anymore, you're never going to have a U2, you're never going to have a Bruce Springsteen, those guys didn't make it off of their first single and real artists probably won't make it off of their first singles. — Richard Patrick

What you don't know
You can feel somehow — U2

But more than anything else, for the British folks Irish people were all terrorists. So when we went to Britain, it was always a lot of resistance to U2. And that's why we came to America. — Bono

Have you seen U2's live show? It's boring as hell. It's like watching CNN. — Sharon Osbourne

The most profound voice of any musician I have ever heard. Joe (Strummer) took his message to the world, and the world listened. He managed to influence more than one generation with his innovative and determined manner, and I am not alone in repeatedly turning to his thoughts and lyrics when searching for inspiration. The Clash was the greatest rock band. They wrote the rule book for U2. — 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

You know, even U2 took a little time off, and then they came back with a new sound. — Daron Malakian

U2 albums never get finished. They just get released. — The Edge

its alright
its alright
its alright — U2

I get to hear the really good or the really bad things in the press, but I don't read it. I can afford to say that because public opinion does not drive U2's audience. — Bono

So it's not really whether you talk about politics, but how well were you able to do it. Peter Gabriel and Sting get away with it ... U2 ... the examples are there, of people being able to carry these subjects in the music, and the audience is absolutely able to embrace subjects that aren't just the stuff they already know about. And they're actually able to learn stuff. — Jackson Browne

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. — Bono

I found my sound early on. Look at U2: they haven't changed their music for 20 years. Anyway, many people come unstuck when they try to change what they do and what they are known for. — Joan Armatrading

People always say, 'How is it to be so successful?' I'm not successful yet. Richard Branson is successful. That's successful. Michael Jackson was successful. U2 was successful. I'm just a guy, doing okay. But I'm a happy guy doing okay. — Afrojack

There are few people who define the word, 'rock star' better than U2's Bono. He's revered the world over not just for leading one of the biggest bands ever, but for his very public work on behalf of the underprivileged in Africa. — Daryn Kagan

Heaven on Earth, we need it now
I'm sick of all of this hanging around
Sick of sorrow, sick of the pain
I'm sick of hearing again and again
That there's gonna be peace on Earth ...
... Tell the ones who hear no sound
Whose sons are living in the ground
Peace on Earth
No whos or whys
No one cries like a mother cries
For peace on Earth — U2

I'm a member of the George Jones fan club, and I'm a member of U2's fan club. — Dierks Bentley

Because he never said it first
he would only ever say 'I love you, too.' And I would hate to think that he was talking about the band U2 the whole time, you know? — Alicia Thompson

I respect the Stones but their songs are a pile of crap. As for U2, they don't say a lot or seem like normal persons. — Liam Gallagher

Asleep by the Smiths
Vapour Trail by Ride
Scarborough Fair by Simon & Garfunkel
A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum
Dear Prudence by the Beatles
Gypsy by Suzanne Vega
Nights in White Satin by the Moody Blues
Daydream by Smashing Pumpkins
Dusk by Genesis (before Phil Collins was even in the band!)
MLK by U2
Blackbird by the Beatles
Landslide by Fleetwood Mac
Asleep by the Smiths (again!)
-Charlie's mixtape — Stephen Chbosky

I recently realized that Television has influenced a lot of English bands. Echo and the Bunnymen, U2, Teardrop Explodes - it's obvious what they've listened to and what they're going for. When I was sixteen I listened to Yardbirds records and thought, "God, this is great." It's gratifying to think that people listened to Television albums and felt the same. — Tom Verlaine

I was at a U2 concert and someone asked me if my hair color was real ... I thought to myself, if I had $1 for every time someone asked me this, I would be very rich. — Angie Everhart

It's seen as dirty to be ambitious. What if U2 weren't ambitious? We wouldn't have that gift we have from them. — Brandon Flowers