Hanging out with politicians and corporations is very unhip work. But I think that the U2 audience have turned out to be incredibly subtle in their understanding.

I will admit that we are attracted to issues that unify people rather than divide them.

U2 is an original species... there are colours and feelings and emotional terrain that we occupy that is ours and ours alone.

The great moments of rock 'n' roll were never off in some corner of the music world, in a self-constructed ghetto.

I think carrying moral baggage is very dangerous for an artist. If you have a duty, it's to be true and not cover up the cracks.

The fact is that ours is the first generation that can look disease and extreme poverty in the eye, look across the ocean to Africa, and say this, and mean it. We do not have to stand for this. A whole continent written off - we do not have to stand for this.

At the heart of the Irish economy has always been the philosophy of tax competitiveness. On the cranky left, that is very annoying; I can see that.