On U2:
"If you're judging [how successful] we are by the fact that we can afford to buy this house, it's a dangerous measure. I judge where we are by how close am I to the melody I'm hearing in my head, and how close are we to what we can do as a band to realizing our potential." (34-35)

On Celebrity:
"Celebrity is ridiculous. It's silly, but it is a kind of currency, and you have to spend it wisely." (93)

On Art vs. Cool:
"Coolness might help in your negotiation with people through the world, maybe, but it is impossible to meet God with sunglasses on. It is impossible to meet God without abandon, without exposing yourself, being raw. That's the connection with great music and great art, and that is why it's uncomfortable, that is why cool is the enemy of it, because that's the other reason you wanted to join a band: you wanted to do the cool thing. Trying to capture religious experiences on tape wasn't what you had in mind when you signed up for the job." (53)

On their extreme religious beliefs in the early 1980s that almost ended U2:
"We came to a realization: 'Hold on a second. Where are these gifts coming from? This is how we worship God, even though we don't write religious songs, because we didn't feel God needs the advertising.' [laughs] In fact, we ended up at a place where we thought: 'The music isn't bollocks. This kind of fundamentalism is what's bollocks.'" (147)