God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.

Music can change the world because it can change people.

There is a root arrogance in any writer; a hugely arrogant assumption that anyone is going to listen to them.

What turns me on about the digital age, what excited me personally, is that you have closed the gap between dreaming and doing. You see, it used to be that if you wanted to make a record of a song, you needed a studio and a producer. Now, you need a laptop.

U2 is sort of song writing by accident really. We don't really know what we're doing and when we do, it doesn't seem to help.

When a nation is over-reliant on one or two commodities like oil or precious minerals, corrupt government ministers and their dodgy associates hoard profits and taxes instead of properly allocating them to schools and hospitals.

In my view, the only thing worse than a rock star is a rock star with a conscience.