Quote Of The Day By Bono: 'I Wish To Begin Again ...'

We can't talk about Bono without talking about U2. By the numbers, U2 has sold 135 million albums since their 1980 debut, "Boy." They've garnered a stunning 22 Grammys, and remain one of the most undeniably successful rock bands in modern history. At the center of it all stands Bono, a frontman whose early-life, religiously split Irish household defined his career and life from then on out.

U2 is a band bound by contradictions as much as its interplay of politics and music. A breakout hit like 1987's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" — a song which defined rock history in the '80s — contains blatantly Christian, utopian-minded lyrics like, "I believe in the Kingdom Come / Then all the colors will bleed into one." But Bono's lyrics have always been interpretable enough, and the band's image is "rock star" enough (especially "Achtung Baby" through "Pop"), that folks have speculated about U2's Christian background for decades. 

Bono's desire to be born again need not be limited to religiosity, though. Growing up in Ireland amidst The Troubles in the latter half of the 20th century, which inspired the song "Sunday Bloody Sunday," it was an extremely turbulent period in recent Irish history. Bono saw politics and religion mingle in blood; this explains practically everything about his real-world outlook. That's why he gets our quote of the day.

"I wish to begin again on a daily basis. To be born again every day is something that I try to do," Bono  said in the book "Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas." 

Assayas took two years to compile "Bono," the 2006 biographical book, written as a series of interviews stitched together in bits over time and in various locations. By that time, U2 had already passed through their '90s electronica-infused phase, which some critics and fans despised, and re-entered the public's good graces with 2000's "Beautiful Day." They'd even put on a well-received Super Bowl performance in 2002, where Bono yanked open his jacket to reveal an American flag displayed in solidarity with a 9/11-traumatized public. It's this last point about the U.S. that connects to Bono's quote.

Bono's quote came at the end of a prolonged conversation about musical figures like Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan, the latter of whom Bono especially admired. When Assayas then redirected the conversation onto Bono himself, asking what his central identity would be in light of musical figures like Springsteen and Dylan, Bono said, "It's the hardest thing ... to be yourself." Bono continued, "That's the great thing about America. It is the land of reinvention."

Hence Bono's quote about beginnings and being born again. To the outside, Bono (and U2, by extension) have always seemed tangled in an ongoing identity crisis. There's the pre-"Joshua Tree" phase, their explosion of fame, the descent into pop stardom in the '90s, the rise afterwards, etc., like one whole narrative. But rather than being indicative of inconsistency, Bono's quote indicates that he's simply willing to be honest about self-exploration, personally, religiously, artistically, or otherwise.   

Bono's shifting public persona illustrates precisely what he means by "I wish to begin again on a daily basis." Simply speaking, Bono is locked into a cycle of self-evaluation of his life and choices. Any band, including U2, takes years to write, record, and promote a new album. Sometimes it's quick, like the difference between "Achtung Baby" and "Zooropa" (two years), and sometimes it's longer. In the meantime, each member of the public has a particular vision of what "U2" is, like a static figure that's supposed to not change. But really, how much changes in one person's life over the course of years? Surely, we could expect artists to change, too, and to have that change reflected in their art.

Then there's the religious angle, evident in the biblical allusion within the second half of Bono's quote, "To be born again every day is something that I try to do." We could take this allusion as indicative of religious piety, sure. And to be clear, Bono's long-since laid his Christianity to bed, no matter all persistent confusion about the matter. In a 2013 interview quoted by Huffpost, he clarified, "We pray with all our kids, we read the Scriptures, we pray." But whether or not Bono means being born again in a Jesus-related way, we can't say. Given his aforementioned upbringing in a religiously and politically divided Ireland, such preoccupations are at least understandable.

As for how this all applies to the rest of us, it should be simple: Never assume you've reached your final conclusions. Always assume there's room to grow, renew, better oneself, and actively try to do so, without chagrin, every day.

• "I'm wary of faith outside of actions. I'm wary of religiosity that ignores the wider world."
• "The world is more malleable than you think and it's waiting for you to hammer it into shape."
• "The problems of the world are problems of the human spirit."
• "I believe God is interested in us, in the detail of our lives."
• "Music can pull people together as surely as politics can pull people apart."