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
What's so powerful about the Psalms are, as well as they're being gospel and songs of praise, they are also the blues.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The Psalms blend joy and sorrow, representing both worship and the struggles of life.
Bono highlights the duality of the Psalms, emphasizing that they serve not only as expressions of faith and praise but also as profound reflections of human suffering and emotional depth. This contrast resonates with the idea that spiritual expressions can encompass the entirety of the human experience, including pain and despair, making them relatable and powerful.
Themes
PsalmsFaithSorrowJoyHuman Experience
In practice
Example use cases
During a church service, I referenced the quote to emphasize the complexity of faith.
More from Bono
All quotes βPerspective is the cure for depression.
BonoRead
At a certain point, I just felt, you know, God is not looking for alms, God is looking for action.
BonoRead
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?'
BonoRead
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.
BonoRead
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.
BonoRead
Similar quotes
I'm going to make a film where not one word is really important. I'm going to make it all action.
Elia KazanRead
The dimensions of a work of art are seldom realized by the author until the work is accomplished. It is like a flowering dream. Ideas grow, budding silently, and there are a thousand illuminations coming day by day as the work progresses. A seed grows in writing as in nature. The seed of the idea is developed by both labor and the unconscious, and the struggle that goes on between them.
Carson MccullersRead
The cut of a garment speaks of intellect and talent and the color of temperament and heart.
Thomas CarlyleRead
Poetry can't give us the laws and institutions and representatives, the antidotes we need: only public activism by massive numbers of citizens can do that.
Adrienne RichRead
Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the truth.
June JordanRead
I wish to sing of my interior visions with the naive candour of a child.
Claude DebussyRead