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.

Ethiopia didn't just blow my mind; it opened my mind. Anyway, on our last day at this orphanage a man handed me his baby and said, 'Would you take my son with you?' He knew, in Ireland, that his son would live, and that in Ethiopia, his son would die.

So what we're talking about here is human rights. The right to live like a human. The right to live, period. And what we're facing in Africa is an unprecedented threat to human dignity and equality.

You see, Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice. It makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties. It doubts our concern. It questions our commitment. Because there is no way we can look at what's happening in Africa, and if we're honest, conclude that it would ever be allowed to happen anywhere else.

Africa is a continent in flames. And deep down, if we really accepted that Africans were equal to us, we would all do more to put the fire out. We're standing around with watering cans, when what we really need is the fire brigade.

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.

You see, idealism detached from action is just a dream. But idealism allied with pragmatism, with rolling up your sleeves and making the world bend a bit, is very exciting. It's very real. It's very strong.

Marriage is this grand madness, and I think if people knew that, they would perhaps take it more seriously.

Overcoming my dad telling me that I could never amount to anything is what has made me the megalomaniac that you see today.

I think ABBA have a pure joy to their music and that's what makes them extraordinary.

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.

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

I used to love Kurt Cobain, when he was telling people we're a pop band. People would laugh, they thought of it as good old ironic Kurt. But he wasn't being ironic.

Selling out is doing something you don't really want to do for money. That's what selling out is.

Rock music is niche.

You know, God has some really weird kids, and I find it hard to be in their company most of the time.

So you cannot, as a Christian, walk away from Africa.

God's Spirit moves through us and the world at a pace that can never be constricted by any one religious paradigm.

I am, as a character, at times, a little overbearing. I recognize that.

Anyone that's involved in development has discovered that all the good work that's been done in development has been undone by the AIDS emergency.

Africa will thrive.

I'm never nervous.

You've got to watch the politics of AIDS. The politics of AIDS can work both for and against the victims of AIDS.

I accept the Old Testament as more of an action movie: blood, car chases, evacuations, a lot of special effects, seas dividing, mass murder, adultery. The children of God are running amok, wayward. Maybe that's why they're so relatable.

My understanding of the Scriptures has been made simple by the person of Christ.

Religion can be the enemy of God. It's often what happens when God, like Elvis, has left the building.

But with Christ, we have access in a one-to-one relationship, for, as in the Old Testament, it was more one of worship and awe, a vertical relationship. The New Testament, on the other hand, we look across at a Jesus who looks familiar, horizontal. The combination is what makes the Cross.

But more than anything else, for the British folks Irish people were all terrorists. So when we went to Britain, it was always a lot of resistance to U2. And that's why we came to America.

Particularly conservative Christians, I was very angry that they were not involved more in the AIDS emergency.

The French are so into themselves that they don't even notice you.

Actually oddly enough, I think my work, the activism, will be forgotten. And I hope it will. Because I hope those problems will have gone away.

Celebrity is ridiculous and silly and it's mad that people like me are listened to - you know, rap stars and movie stars.

It's a privilege to serve the poor, to be servants of noble Africans, but I better belong in the rehearsal room or in the studio with my band. That's where I want to be and I still wake up in the morning with melodies in my head.

Because you know when you first become famous, you start walking a little different because people are staring at you.

America is not just a country, it's an idea, and real Americans are getting busy.

The extraction of oil, coal and minerals brought, and still brings, a cost to the environment.

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.

Happy the country that lives on nothing but its wits; cursed be the one that thinks it can get rich by planting or digging or drilling for wealth.

Sub-Saharan Africa is also home to 400 million of the world's poorest people.

When you truly accept that those children in some far off place in the global village have the same value as you in God's eyes or even in just your eyes, then your life is forever changed; you see something that you can't un-see.

I remember how my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays... and my father used to wait outside. One of the things that I picked up from my father and my mother was the sense that religion often gets in the way of God. For me, at least, it got in the way.

It's not a coincidence that in the Scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It's not an accident. That's a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions.

It's annoying, but justice and equality are mates. Aren't they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain.

I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did - or did not do - to put the fire out in Africa. History, like God, is watching what we do.

When people say, you know, 'Good teacher,' 'Prophet,' 'Really nice guy'... this is not how Jesus thought of Himself. So you're left with a challenge in that, which is either Jesus was who he said he was or a complete and utter nut case. You have to make a choice on that.

When you align yourself with God's purpose as described in the Scriptures, something special happens to your life.

Contrary to reports, this boy is not a billionaire or going to be richer than any Beatle... and not just in the sense of money, by the way; the Beatles are untouchable - those billionaire reports are a joke.

I felt rich when I was 20 years old and my wife was paying my bills. Just being in a band, I've always felt blessed.

Technology is huge; I wanted to learn about it. People might say that's odd, but I think it's odd if artists aren't interested in the world around them. I'm always chasing that.

Facebook are an amazing team, a brilliant team. It's a technology that brings people together.