Bob Geldof Quotations

You can't trust politicians. It doesn't matter who makes a political speech. It's all lies - and it applies to any rock star who wants to make a political speech as well.

But if somebody dies, if something happens to you, there is a normal process of depression, it is part of being human, and some people view it as a learning experience etc.

I don't think anyone sets out to malign poor people but certainly that's what we do through organizations such as the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Actually, today I had to defend the Bush Administration in France again. They refuse to accept, because of their political ideology, that he has actually done more than any American President for Africa. But it's empirically so.

I was really lucky that I came to puberty at a time when music and politics were completely intertwined

It's really very simple, Governor. When people are hungry they die. So spare me your politics and tell me what you need and how you're going to get it to these people.

Music is still above all else the thing that does it for me

And whereas women had to fight to find their way into the workforce, men are now fighting to reclaim their place in the family structure.

Physically I'm tired at the end of the day and quite glad to be reading in bed by midnight

Certainly, I think being depressed is absolutely part of the human condition, it has to be, if there's joy there's its opposite, and it's something you ride if you possibly can.

So when I got to 50 I just thought, Hold on: I'm thin. I've got my hair. I'm well off. I survived, you know

It's like you asked me about the depression thing: you grope towards an understanding of whatever it is your going through, and it's not personal, there are forces in play around you, and you seek to understand them and that way you can go on

If you were a pretty boy pop singer, it would wreck you, growing older

Divorce is a by-product of the fact that maybe the nuclear unit is gone.

Irish Americans are no more Irish than Black Americans are Africans.

Mankind at its most desperate is often at its best

Music is what I must do, business is what I need to do and politics is what I have to do

The girls are a complete joy and I love their passion. They argue with me like mad and I love that too.

There is not a single extant study that supports all the arguments against men being with their children. It's absolute bollocks

I'd always thought the Rats were good fun, but one of the very nice things about being of Saga age is that I can actually look back and think, When I was younger I was in a great band. It was always a collective thing.

And part of that is, what is the point of having children if you don't have the privilege of bringing them up?

Playing live if the thing I love doing best

Everything that's rock n roll is ever meant to be is happening now. I need to get over the shock that that thing is actually happening and that thousands of millions of people around the world are watching.

But I think Prozac is a lethal drug, I've several friends just haven't made it by taking Prozac.

I'm sure I'm very difficult to live with because of my make-up and personality.

When I hit 11 so did the careers of Dylan and the Stones. A year later it was the Who and the Kinks.

Well, a sort of epiphany: I was in a great band. And it's very cool to be at 53 and realise that when you were a kid you were in a great band.

I do think I feel it but you don't think you are cause at a certain time you are no age but you don't think you are anything. You feel the life you have lived. I feel that. It's been a long fifty years.

Men who are not given any voice in this because of the secret nature of the courts, what they're left with is dressing up ridiculously, but at least using humour to try and draw attention to their kids

Those songs are about getting out; they're not about getting out of family. It wasn't about how family life was curtailing because I didn't know family life.

My depressions aren't so much... depression's too heavy a word. I get very down and y'know, boredom is the key to it as I've said.

On late ex-wife Paula Yates and her lover Michael Hutchence: They thought they were Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall. In fact they were more like Tom and Jerry.

Poor old Paul. He's getting it in the neck from Bono while he's touring up in Canada and he's getting it in the teeth from me,

If we can get the domestic heat to such a temperature, just possibly we can reach down that ladder and say, 'come on dudes, I'll give you a hand up'.

From the very get-go, everyone was aware of this: what's the point of signing up if no one's going to do it?

I don't care who I have to get to, to make this agenda work. They must know that I am in no one's pocket, that I am not beholden to anyone.

But that can happen later. We can't allow this to be sidelined.

We've got to go up to the room now.

Today is the perfect moment to talk ahead of the WTO negotiations, ... The EU must break the deadlock and as of today it has failed to do so.

Irish Americans are about as Irish as Black Americans are African.

Paul, join the club, dude. It's not that hard.

I will be extremely active in trying to get these people thrown out of office.

I think he's really throwing down the gauntlet. It's a very bold move, ... comes from despair and lack of hope.

It appears from the Live 8 experience they can do something about it, because they obviously stopped Live 8 tickets being sold. As JK Rowling's representatives, we would very much appreciate it if they took steps to prevent the activities she has referred to.

We need the Dutch and the Belgians to come along with us at the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and try and push through the great package of change on debt relief,

That we can tilt the world a little bit in favor of the poor.

The deal could never have happened in the recent crazy market. But in a collapsing market, whole new opportunities present themselves for lean and nimble operators like us.

When Michael Jackson sings it is with the voice of angels, and when his feet move, you can see God dancing.

It strikes me as being morally repulsive and intellectually absurd that people die of want in a world of surplus.

Human progress depends on unreasonable people. Reasonable people accept the world as they meet it; unreasonable people persist in trying to change it. Well, I'm Bob and I'm an unreasonable person. And if TED is anything, it is the olympics of unreasonable people.

Rock & roll is instant coffee.

Tell me why...... I don't like Mondays...

Feed the world. Let them know it's Christmas time again.

You cannot even begin to understand contemporary African politics if you have not read this fascinating book

It's a tragedy that modernity has released this Ebola beast into the world. It renders humans untouchable, and that's sickening. The international response so far has been scandalous. China has delivered f**k all.

90% of the divorces are initiated by women. That is really odd. Why? What's going on? What's the great discontent at the heart of it?

What's the point in having a company of secretaries?

Most people get into bands for three very simple rock and roll reasons: to get laid, to get fame, and to get rich.

You'll think I'm off my trolley when I say this, but the Bush administration is the most radical - in a positive sense - in its approach to Africa since Kennedy.

It went beyond idealism and that ridiculous term "activism," which basically means talking about something but doing nothing. . . . We made giving exciting.

It's either vilification or sanctification, and both piss me off.

Blair has called Africa 'a scar on our conscience'. It is more. It is the gaping wound of the world's soul.

Because we can't comprehend it, and that's what allows us to do it again. And it is the normal, it's the average person that can do this. Again, in an imaginary other universe, maybe we'd have done it. That's the terrible truth that lies at the heart of each of us; that imponderable, 'were I not Jewish, in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Germany, would I have gone down on the other side?'

They thought they were Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall. In fact, they were more like Tom and Jerry

We're looking at the singular condition of poverty. All the other individual problems spring from that condition... doesn't matter if it's death, aid, trade, AIDS, famine, instability, governance, corruption or war. All of that is poverty. Our problem is that everybody tries to heal each of the individual aspects of poverty, not poverty itself.

Music can't change the world.

Think. That's what we need you to do. Think.

Bono as we all know, is in love with the world, he's enamoured by it. I'm enraged by it. He wants to give the world a great big hug, I want to punch its lights out.

Find inner peace? I looked; it wasn't there.

Don't let them tell us it doesn't work,

I understand this is a process but the process should have been accelerated and added to at the UN.

to do something unparalleled in the world, and especially at the beginning of the 21st Century, and that is to tilt the world a little bit on its axis in favor of the poor, and that's not a difficult thing to do.

It was to do with politics, not just fundraising and utilizing those things through to its logical end, to the ultimate seat of power. ... I think that probably started with George.

You have to really pick and be careful about what is going to get you the biggest mass audience where you could talk about the conditions of the poor people in Africa. That's what we're doing. If you can suggest to me British blacks acts that should be one, that sell in the same quantities as the bands we've got, fine.

We live in a broken world which has never been healthier, wealthier or bizarrely, free of conflict, but some 500 kilometers south of here they die of want, ... It's not only intellectually absurd, but also morally repulsive.

Some people may, perhaps correctly, view Live 8 as the blink of an eye. Five days later, the horrific, devastating London bombs dissipated the goodwill of the Olympic bid and Live 8.

E-mails get in the way of serious consideration of what you want to do,

Essentially the change came, and correctly and properly so, when women finally achieved their biological and financial independence concomitantly.

There's no use in the prime minister coming to Scotland unless he's prepared to do this deal. Unless he's prepared he should stay home. Don't come. You're not welcome unless you're prepared to do something finally.

with a wall of celebrities, and no message beyond a vague notion about caring for the poor and wanting politicians to 'do something'. It obliterated everything else.

This, as we have always said, is only a beginning. But, what a beginning. The deal should be implemented without delay.

This debt deal will benefit tens of millions of the poorest people on the planet,

This is the first time we have heard this sort of language. This is very, very positive indeed.

I had this big fight with Madame X, Mrs. Thatcher, 20 years ago, and now the government understands politically it's not worth it to go up against it.

Not to be immodest, but the first one was perfect in almost every sense, ... Artistically, people seemed to up the ante, and the performances were pretty great across the board. Huge amounts of money were raised, not a penny lost, and politically it elevated the issue onto the global table. The whole thing just worked, unbelievably.

It went beyond idealism and that ridiculous term activism, which basically means talking about something but doing nothing. We made giving exciting.

I just don't think the violence will achieve anything. The debt campaigners have never been violent, and they have achieved a lot.

I have the records, photos, videos and all that stuff for her.

Canada's weird, ... Canada invented 0.7. They really invented this great notion. Canada is the sole country of the G8 enjoying a surplus.

Africa must be allowed to trade itself out of poverty,

You will never see it again. You will never see this happen again. It will be the greatest concert ever,

The truth is, I do have 14 sheep, down in Kent in my house there, and I'll actually ship them over now to Stephen's Green and you can all bugger off. That's where they are going to live.

The truth is I do have 14 sheep, down in Kent in my house there, and I'll actually ship them over now to Stephen's Green and you can all bugger off. That's where they are going to live,

It really has quite an important effect on people,

It is raining and it's cold, but it is a beautiful day.

It says debt, trade and aid in exchange for the Africans coming to the party with good governance. If they don't come to the party, we can't help -- we'd love to, but we can't.

It's going to have to happen now because China will be all over Africa...and they will embrace any government.

This is the most important tour in Ireland since the Rats because I've built up a body of songs, since we split, as a solo artist.

I am not giving tacit approval. What I am trying to do is agree to help formulate a policy that I would agree with.

I can see you're going to be trouble, Claire.