24 All-Star Readers on the Words That Rock Their Worlds

Bono

For the statistics of extreme poverty to step off the page and become the sisters, brothers, mothers, and fathers they represent, the right language has to be found—an act of poetry is required. In meetings with high stakes, I'm always concerned words will fail me, so as a kind of talisman I take a book of Seamus Heaney along and leave it behind. I don't know if these politicians ever take a look, but I think the transference of his stillness and stirrings would make their burdens feel lighter.