“You say You want Diamonds on a Ring of Gold,Your Story to remain untold.Your Lovee not to go Cold”
"All I Want Is You"
Lyrics, Rattle And Hum(1988)
Context: You say You want Diamonds on a Ring of Gold, Your Story to remain untold. Your Lovee not to go Cold
PENN Address (2004)
Context: It's not everywhere in fashion these days, Americanism. Not very big in Europe, truth be told. No less on Ivy League college campuses. But it all depends on your definition of Americanism.
Me, I'm in love with this country called America. I'm a huge fan of America, I'm one of those annoying fans, you know the ones that read the CD notes and follow you into bathrooms and ask you all kinds of annoying questions about why you didn't live up to that...
I'm that kind of fan. I read the Declaration of Independence and I've read the Constitution of the United States, and they are some liner notes, dude. As I said yesterday I made my pilgrimage to Independence Hall, and I love America because America is not just a country, it's an idea.
PENN Address (2004)
Context: When the potatoes ran out, millions of Irish men, women and children packed their bags got on a boat and showed up right here. And we're still doing it. We're not even starving anymore, loads of potatoes. In fact if there's any Irish out there, I've breaking news from Dublin, the potato famine is over you can come home now. But why are we still showing up? Because we love the idea of America.
We love the crackle and the hustle, we love the spirit that gives the finger to fate, the spirit that says there's no hurdle we can't clear and no problem we can't fix.
Rolling Stone interview (2005)
Context: If I could put it simply, I would say that I believe there's a force of love and logic in the world, a force of love and logic behind the universe. And I believe in the poetic genius of a creator who would choose to express such unfathomable power as a child born in "straw poverty"; i. e., the story of Christ makes sense to me. … As an artist, I see the poetry of it. It's so brilliant. That this scale of creation, and the unfathomable universe, should describe itself in such vulnerability, as a child. That is mind-blowing to me. I guess that would make me a Christian. Although I don't use the label, because it is so very hard to live up to. I feel like I'm the worst example of it, so I just kinda keep my mouth shut. … I try to take time out of every day, in prayer and meditation. I feel as at home in a Catholic cathedral as in a revival tent. I also have enormous respect for my friends who are atheists, most of whom are, and the courage it takes not to believe.
“The Glass is cut,The Bottle run dry.Our love runs cold in the caverns of the night”
"Red Hill Mining Town"
Lyrics, The Joshua Tree (1987)
Context: The Glass is cut, The Bottle run dry. Our love runs cold in the caverns of the night
“And I don't want to lie
I just know that I need to…
Love.”
"If God Will Send His Angels"
Lyrics, Pop (1997)
Context: And I don't need to know why
And I don't want to promise
Where do we go
Where did you go
And I don't want to lie
I just know that I need to...
Love.
“Our Love has slowly slipped away,Our Love has seen its better day”
"Red Hill Mining Town"
Lyrics, The Joshua Tree (1987)
Context: Our Love has slowly slipped away, Our Love has seen its better day
Rolling Stone interview (2005)
Context: I was in my room listening on headphones on a tape recorder. It's very intimate. It's like talking to somebody on the phone, like talking to John Lennon on the phone. I'm not exaggerating to say that. This music changed the shape of the room. It changed the shape of the world outside the room; the way you looked out the window and what you were looking at.
I remember John singing "Oh My Love." It's like a little hymn. It's certainly a prayer of some kind — even if he was an atheist. "Oh, my love/For the first time in my life/My eyes can see/I see the wind/Oh, I see the trees/Everything is clear in our world." For me it was like he was talking about the veil lifting off, the scales falling from the eyes. Seeing out the window with a new clarity that love brings you. I remember that feeling.
Yoko came up to me when I was in my twenties, and she put her hand on me and she said, "You are John's son." What an amazing compliment!
“I could never take a chance of losing love to find romance.”
"A Man and A Woman"
Lyrics, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004)
“A man will rise, a man will fall. From the shear face of love like a fly from the wall”
"The Fly"
Lyrics, Achtung Baby (1991)
"Vertigo"
Lyrics, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004)
“God is love and love is evolution's best day”
Stand Up Comedy
Lyrics, No Line On The Horizon (2009)
“There was a badness that had its way. But love wasn't lost. Love will have its day.”
"North and South of the River"
Lyrics, Staring at the Sun (1997 EP)
“Love is not the easy thing…
The only baggage you can bring
Is all that you can't leave behind.”
Lyrics, All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000), Walk On
"One"
Lyrics, Achtung Baby (1991)