BEING REBORN

---

…this is at the heart of the idea of redemption: to be born again. This is at the heart of religious fundamentalism too: to be born again. I wish to begin again on a daily basis. To be born again every day is something that I try to do. And I’m deadly serious about that. 2005 ー Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas
 
City of Blinding Lights is about… loss of innocence… and how you think that once you’ve lost your innocence you can’t get it back. But I don’t agree with that. I believe you can go back. April 14, 2005 ー Interview with VH1 Spotlight

The core of ‘Innocence’ to me is a lyric from our second album, which says, ‘I can’t change the world, but I can change the world in me.’ The core of ‘Experience’ is... ‘I can change the world, but I can’t change the world in me.’ And so you realise that the biggest obstacle in the way is yourself. September 6, 2017 ー "U2 Offers 'Songs of Experience' to a World That's on Fire" by Jon Pareles (The New York Times)

All my favourite words are stolen.... They're all gone, meaningless. Like born again. What a great idea ー everyone should want to be born again, every day. But now it means nothing, because some very dangerous people got hold of the word. March 9, 1989 ー "Now What?" by Steve Pond (Rolling Stone)

I never really accepted the whole “born again” tag. It’s a great term, had it not been so abused. I accepted it on one level, in that I loved the idea of being reborn… I think people should be reborn every day, man! You know, every day again and again and again! At twenty years old, this idea of “surrender every day,” this idea of “dying to oneself”… was so exciting! Then I came to America in 1981, the land of milk and the .357 Magnum. It blew my mind that this word “reborn” meant nothing. May 1, 1989 ー “Pure Bono” by Adam Black (Mother Jones)

See Themes
Before The Fall
Being Reborn
Redemption