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.
BonoRead
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.
Interpretation
Bono presents the Old Testament as a dramatic and chaotic narrative that reflects human behavior and struggles.
In this quote, Bono likens the Old Testament to an action movie filled with intense and chaotic scenarios, emphasizing that its narratives are over-the-top yet fundamentally relatable. By highlighting the tumultuous events and the flawed nature of its characters, he suggests that these stories resonate with our own experiences of chaos and moral ambiguity, making them both engaging and recognizable.
In practice
During a discussion about the relevance of religious texts in modern life, this quote could be used to illustrate the relatable nature of ancient stories.
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.
Perspective is the cure for depression.
At a certain point, I just felt, you know, God is not looking for alms, God is looking for action.
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?'
God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.
Hanging out with politicians and corporations is very unhip work. But I think that the U2 audience have turned out to be incredibly subtle in their understanding.
I will tell you why we have these extraordinary minds and souls, Miss Whittaker," he continued, as though he had not heard her. "We have them because there is a supreme intelligence in the universe, which wishes for communion with us. This supreme intelligence longs to be known. It calls out to us. It draws us close to its mystery, and grants us these remarkable minds, in order that we try to reach for it. It wants us to find it. It wants union with us, more than anything.
Idiots are always in favour of inequality of income (their only chance of eminence), and the really great in favour of equality.
Even when you err, it is a thousand times better to err out of conviction than to hide your true opinion to respect some authority.
We have seen enough criminality on the part of government. It is hypocritical to make this allegation against me. They have narrowed the public sphere of influence.
Who does not in some sort live to others, does not live much to himself.
I'm not a universalist, and the way I talk about final loss is this: People worship idols - money, whatever. Their humanness gets reshaped around the idol - you become like what you worship. That's one of the basic spiritual laws.
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