Music and books were my inspiration too. I read avidly as a kid. And that's the beautiful thing about books and music and even movies, is that you can actually escape. You can go into other worlds.

I was a very shy child. I didn't like football. I didn't like the usual stuff that was shoved at. Sports were always down you and the Gaelic language, which I've actually disliked as a kid but as I grow up I quite like it.

I was a child of the '60s basically, which is a real blank. I really started growing up, I think, in the '70s. I'm a glam-rock kid. But Dublin, Ireland in those days was a very dark place, as in it was a very poor, almost third world. Economically, the whole world is going through a recession at the moment. In the '60s, '70s, and the '80s in Ireland was a real recession. It wasn't a pleasant place.

I get anxious but worry doesn't really do any good. If something is broken or in trouble, you've got to bend down, pick it up and fix it. Worry just makes us get wrinkles. So try not worrying.

I think a lot of kids do dream in their own way, except 25, 30 years later legend happens because some of us have become quite well known. So the myth becomes magical. So I tend to sort of see it very practical for me. When I go out for a drink, Bono can buy the pints because he has more money than me. We're the same guys, do you know what I mean.

A weird theory I have is we come from a suppressed culture. Ireland is one of the most invaded countries ever. I think the British started it very early, it could be like 800 that decided to come and show us out; and the Danes in the north. We've had a tough time and pretty much a similar culture would be the Jewish culture; they had a pretty hard time. They were being kicked around for a long, long time.

I don't think Bono decided to be ambitious, he just is. But if this country ever ran out of electricity, just shove a plug up his hole and it would run for a week.