EDGE QUOTES

It's the moment I actually meet the people that enjoy our music that's very special. We cannot control what people think of us, [but] when we meet people, we just underline the fact that we are the same as they are. We may be in a privileged position in a creative field of music, but other than that, there's essentially no difference. - 1983

Larry makes so much noise when he's hitting things that he just tends to be quiet when he isn't. - 1981

Bono has a sort of love-hate relationship with the guitar. I think he feels somewhat inferior because he's only got five fingers and it's got six strings. - 1983

People say that playing live is stunting - you get bored, you get bogged down. But for us, every time we go on stage there is a real atmosphere of anticipation within the band. There are no two nights which could be said to be the same - the set may be the same, but the audience is different and our approach to each audience varies. There's a lot of improvisation from Bono and from all of us. - 1983

Some people have described us as a band that soar above reality and we're hanging in the air somewhere. I think this band refuses to admit the existence of ordinariness. In a sense, every person has a sort of individuality and realization that nothing is ordinary. Simple Minds have that approach; they are a band that see through the superficial layer... there's something beyond that, a magic to the industrial landscape. A lot of people don't credit that, they think that this band refuses to see things that are going on in the street and that's not true at all... - 1984

I have a terrible habit of finding really unimportant, trivial, manual things to do. I'll go mow the lawn, or find some piece of furniture that needs some varnishing, or... paint the cat. Something like that. It requires very little mental effort - you concentrate on things and your brain sort of unwinds slowly. When I go on holiday, the last thing I want to do is just lie on a beach. I far prefer to go skiing or do something that gets me involved. If I just lie on a beach, I just get totally freaked out because my mind goes into gear five and I can't relax. - 1985

I think there's a sense of unity that I don't see in many other groups. I think we take responsiblity for each other in a way that most groups don't. We, as a group collectively, probably are not incredibly talented musically, but what we do is cover for one another, in a way. Ultimately it's sorted out; no one is left with egg on their faces because there's three other guys in the band who are willing to make sure that that's not gonna happen. There is a true dependence in the group on other members... Which is one of the reasons why we have to keep friendly with one another! - 1985

We came offstage after Live Aid and we thought we had really blown it. We thought that the idea of doing 'Bad' really hadn't worked, because Bono went into the audience. That was fine, but as everyone saw who was watching the TV coverage, it was like nothing he wanted to do seemed to happen for him: he couldn't get into the audience, he couldn't get the person he wanted out of the audience onto the stage, it was turning into a real embarrassment - a real disaster. - 1987

What do you call a guy who hangs around with a pile of musicians? The answer is... a drummer! - 1985

Being taken too seriously is a problem. It seems that no matter what we do, people place this huge weight of importance on it. Importance out of the realm of music, whether it's political importance or something cultural. I think that can be bad. - 1988

The only important thing about this film is that we survived it. Of course, whether we survive the bullshit hype with our marbles intact remains to be seen. Having avoided a lot of the bullshit for so long, this film will mean us walking into a mountain of it. We were stupid enough to agree to do the film in the first place. We only had ourselves to blame. - 1989, about RATTLE AND HUM

Ten years ago, when I thought about being in a rock and roll band, I saw so much. I saw everything: being on the radio, television, making movies, records, being on the road. It was huge, like really wide spectrum of things that were very important. Now that spectrum has shrunk down to nothing. IThe essence of what it is to be a rock and roll band to me, now, is just that three-and-a-half minutes [of a song]. Not giving interviews, not being on television, not all that goes with it. What has drowned out the sound of the rock and roll circus has been the rock and roll song. Just that one thing. That's the most exciting thing for me... I come back to that line in our song 'In God's Country': 'We need new dreams tonight.' The job is to dream up a world you'd want to live in. - 1989

I don't think U2 will ever get to the stage where there's a formula. Our way of writing is always so much a part of experimenting and a feeling at the time.

You've got to spend enough time in a place to make it worthwhile. Otherwise it's just turning money into problems. That's Brian Eno's attitude to all possessions. - 2001, about why he hasn't bought a home in New York

Having deconstructed the band so ruthlessly over the previous couple of records, to bring it all back together again to celebrate the limitations of what a rock 'n' roll band, and this rock 'n' roll band, is about has given us a jolt of encouragement. - 2001

Our aim was to allow our audience to hear as well as see how we worked in our emotional commitment to the music we play.

It was nice to see ourselves live... I thought I was much taller. - on RATTLE AND HUM, the movie

It sounded fresh again. We had been exploring the fringe of what we could be and what rock 'n' roll was all about, and that was essential. I think the group would have died creatively if we hadn't moved into uncharted territory. But eventually we needed to return to the center. I don't know if we've made a great record or not, but it is our record. It's us standing there naked, if you will. - on 'Beautiful Day'

It's got the kind of immediate quality that a piece of music has when it's come together very quickly. It sounds very fresh because it really didn't take a lot of time to record. It came in in a bit of a rush, and I think that's why it sounds so powerful. - on 'Kite'

It's probably the most immediate song. It started out as just an idea I had for a kind of a gospel direction for something and Bono kicked it in a very different direction. It's kind of U2 doing a classic thing, but in a new way. I think it'll be a single - yeah. - on 'Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of'

It's very fresh, and I think really it deserves it's place on the record very much. But it really had to earn it's place on the record because it's so kind of ambient. - on 'Grace'

All religion seems to do is divide. I'm really interested in and influenced by the spiritual side of Christianity, rather than the legislative side, the rules and regulations. - 1983

It's a very unusual thing to be in a band like this. It's like being in a street gang. And it's all very well being in a street gang when you're 16, but it's bloody weird when you're 32.

It's funny, but even within the space of one song, you can feel the audience come and go. The only thing to do is kick into heavier gear and go for it. Some of our best gigs have been ones that start off badly and then become manic and unpredictable. Heavy but cool is the key.

The reason for being in a band initially was purely satisfaction. Having started for that reason, we started writing songs, we started doing things. And our academic careers just went out of the window. Because we suddenly realized that this was important to us. - 1985

Zoo TV was just letting our imaginations run riot - and anyone else's we could get our hands on.

That's one of the things that attracted me to rock & roll. Initially, there's that feeling of potential, of power, when you strap on an electric guitar. And then you lean that what it's really about is controlling that power. I mean, the guitar has been a big part of rock & roll. I just can't imagine Elvis holding a violin!

I really think this album was inspired by being on the road with the Zoo TV tour and playing around with the questions that tour threw up. - on Zooropa, the album

If you've got 5,000 people outside a venue there's no way you can go out, but if you find like 10 or 30 people then we go and talk to them. It still happens, it's just not quite as easy as it used to be. - 1987

I'm all for propaganda! It's a fine line and you're going to get it wrong sometimes. I think we're aware that maybe that is part of why we ended up being the caricature. A little bit. Rattle and Hum, the movie, was an example of that. We were criticized by some people for not revealing more. We actually made quite a conscious decision not to reveal more, because we didn't feel comfortable with it. It is a balance, because you have to give up so much more when you reveal all. It's like you no longer have a private life. But at the same time, if you don't reveal all, people don't really get the full picture. So it's a compromise. With Rattle and Hum we just didn't want to reveal ourselves. My attitude was, 'What? Do you think we're crazy? Cameras in the dressing room? What do you think we are - stupid?' I love what we do, because we control it. Because we've set it up where we're comfortable with it. That's why we could do it. If it was done in a way where our private lives were an open book, I don't think I could be in the band. I didn't get into the band to become a celebrity. I got into the band because I wanted to play music and write songs and tour and do all that stuff. Some people might object to that but I say, 'Well, fuck you!' It's my life and this is the way it works for me. (U2 At the End of the World 6)

Achtung Baby is definitely a reaction to the myth of U2. We really never had any control over that myth. You could say we helped it a long a bit, but the actual myth itself is a creation of the media and people's imagination. Like all myths. There is very little resemblance to the actual personalities of the band or the intentions of the band, and Achtung Baby balances things out a bit. (U2 At the End of the World 42)

That guy [Bono] is totally different to the way most people think of him. He's far funnier, takes himself far less seriously than most people think. He's wild, he's not reserved. (U2 At the End of the World 42-43)

I think of notes being expensive. You don't just throw them around. I find the ones that do the best job and that's what I use. I suppose I'm a minimalist instinctively. I don't like to be inefficient if I can get away with it... I suppose ultimately I'm interested in music. I'm a musician. I'm not a gunslinger. That's the difference between what I do and what a lot of guitar heroes do. (U2 At the End of the World 45)

October was a struggle from beginning to end. It was an incredibly hard record to make for us because we had major problems with time. And I had been through this thing of not knowing if I should be in the band or not. It was really difficult to pull all the things together and still maintain the focus to actually finish a record in the time that we had. You could hear the desperation and confusion in some of the lyrics... Having thrown ourselves into this thing we were trying to make some sense of it. 'Why are we in this?' It was a very difficult time. (U2 At the End of the World 47)

I have no trouble with Christ, but I have trouble with a lot of Christians. That was the problem. We wanted to give ourselves the chance to be viewed without that thing hanging over us. I don't think we're worried about it now. (U2 At the End of the World 47)

I suppose we've changed our attitudes a lot since then. The central faith and spirit of the band is the same. But I have less and less time for legalism now. I just see that you live a life of faith. It's nothing to do necessarily with what clothes you wear or whether you drink or smoke or who you're seeing or not seeing. (U2 At the End of the World 49)

Unforgettable Fire is probably less fixed to any time, more a work that will mean the same in ten years as it meant when it was released. On Unforgettable Fire probably more than our other records the music has such a strong voice that Bono's vocals are almost like another musical element. We got criticized that it was sort of cop-out, that we weren't writing songs anymore, that this was ill-disciplined work. I could see where the reviews were coming from, based on probably a weekend listening to it, but I knew there was far more to it than just hat. It was not U2 going arty, there was actually something there that was really valuable and enduring. I still listen to that record. (U2 At the End of the World 49)

I don't really worry about mistakes. I've never had a problem with mistakes. There's a certain thing that happens to us onstage, a certain spark, a certain electricity. It's impossible to describe but it's sort of like that is the show, you know? That's what the band's always had. 'Chemistry' only describes one aspect of it. (U2 At the End of the World 50)

I think that record was a great stepping-stone for Bono as a lyricist. He was going for something. Points of reference were the New Journalism, The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer, Raymond Carver, the bleak American desert landscape as a metaphor. There's a definite cinematic location, a landscape of words and images and themes that made up The Joshua Tree. It's a subtle balance, a blend of the songs and lyrics. (U2 At the End of the World 51)

In rock, Jews are the best lyricists because of their merciless intellectual rigor. (U2 At the End of the World 144)

Even now, if Adam's walking down a hotel corridor and he sees something sitting on one of the room service trays left outside someone's door, he'll reach down and grab it.(U2 At the End of the World 151)

Work is fairly absolute, you've got stuff to do and you've got to get on with it. But I'm a naturally gifted procrastinator and avoider of things that are not absolute. (U2 At the End of the World 270)

This is not a band like most bands. We're still very close. We still care a lot about each other. There is a lot of support for each other and a lot of leeway and a lot of understanding. I like to think that it would be difficult for one of us to really get off the way and really go out there without the others realizing it and being there to do something about it. Obviously it's not up to me what the other guys do in their private time, but I think you can make it hard for somebody to fuck themselves up, you can be the squeaky wheel, you can just tell him the truth, which a lot of people never get. (U2 At the End of the World 453)

I'd like to remix every U2 album.

For me, that term 'pop' is like a candy bar. You buy it because you like it, you eat it, and then you throw it away. It has no long-term meaning or value. - 1985

I'm getting confused. I don't like this sort of new fan. There used to be a time when there were more fans crashing on the floors of our rooms than standing outside the hotel! Now you get these super rich groupies staying in bigger suites than the band...These kind of rich girls, they've got nothing to do with rock 'n' roll. This is celebrity. It's getting harder and harder to meet the people who actually listen to the records.

We've set it up so there is almost a conflict. It's almost the Zoo TV production fighting for the attention of the crowd with the band that's a good tension, that makes us kick a little bit harder to avoid the possibility of being overshadowed.

What happened was this avalanche of questions. The uncertainty - that this person who had been so close to us was gone... For a long time, still sometimes, I feel like he's going to walk through the door. - 1987, about Greg Carroll's death

The lifestyle that goes with touring? Touring is completely mad, completely unnatural, completely false and when you do it for long periods of time as we currently are, you do tend to get used to it which is worse. It just means that when you go home you feel like you've just gone to Mars because normality seems so weird.

Paul McGuinness was an important step, and we went after him in a very determined way. When he came on board it was very important. We didn't want to be a cult group, we wanted to be a big group and we thought that's where our talents lay, that's what we, as a group of guys together, that's what we had the potential to be. We needed Paul McGuinness to help us do that.

It was a very pivotal song in the recording of the album - the first sort of breakthrough in what was an extremely difficult set of sessions in Berlin. I like the lyric a lot because it treads a very fine line between becoming too clear, too jingoistic, but in the end it never does... it stays personal. - about 'One'

There was this undeniable belief that Adam instilled in us. We only wanted to play music, we didn't think about it in terms of making money or making records but Adam always did. And Adam was our first manager... We looked at him as if he was out of his mind [when he suggested that they should get themselves on TV].

I don't think Larry ever liked the idea of being a pop star and I think it's great that in the same band you've got Bono who's like, you know, the whole - the stage is like a platform shoe, it's like a chance for him to get out and be noticed and then there's Larry hiding behind the drum kit. - 1997

People try to examine our beliefs to get a line on our music. But going the other way around is better. Music is a far better medium to explain something as personal and intangible as that. I have absolutely no interest in the political or doctrinal side of Christianity. In fact that aspect terrifies me. - 1985

After 'Achtung Baby,' there was all this talk about U2 reinventing itself, and I guess it'd be easy for someone to say we've reinvented ourselves again. But the changes aren't some strategy - they come out of being interested and inspired by what other people are doing. All of a sudden you start to take on different aesthetics, something you haven't tried before, to see where you can take it. That's how you learn and how you grow. - 1996

The essence of what we do has always been, and probably always will be, very daunting. It's always in the back of your mind that one day you might just draw a blank. - 1992

We're just gonna rewrite history concerning the stadiums. I think people will change their mind about them when we play them.

It's definitely a departure. There's an emphasis away form the guitar without losing the aggression... [The record focuses on] the politics of the individual. We're pulling at areas that we really have strong feelings about: ones we feel we can comment on, that relate to our own situation and the situation of our country. - 1984, on 'The Unforgettable Fire' LP

It was a piece of music that Bono had never heard before. He came into the studio, took a microphone into the control room and sang - and it was such an inspired performance that we decided to leave it as it is. - 1984, on 'Elvis Presley and America'

On this record, the one thing we wanted to do was be more in focus. The songs should be more condensed, the kernel of each piece a bit harder, denser, a bit meatier. It would be less open-ended as a record. We would try to get more into the song as an art form in itself, rather than relying on breaking new ground in terms of what our pieces became. - on the JOSHUA TREE

It leaves more of a vacuum in Dave. He's perhaps been more wrapped up in it than the others. When Garvin gets very involved in anything he really gets into the nitty-gritty. The very first time we went skiing he bought a book on how to ski, he wanted to know how to distribute the weight. I'm much more instinctive, but I fell down a few times. Garvin really wants to get down and know how everything works, and Dave's the same. I think he does get very involved mentally and he finds it hard to come back down to normal living, for want of a better word. It would be good if he could find a fulfilling hobby or even start playing golf. (U2 At the End of the World 156) - GWENDA EVANS, EDGE'S MOM

He's quite good at painting, actually; he likes to sketch. But that's quite a lonely hobby, really. They have to be careful what they choose to do because they are much more well known now. (U2 At the End of the World 156) - GWENDA EVANS, EDGE'S MOM