And the goodness just keeps on coming. As the tour has come to an end, the high bravado of the pre-tour interviews makes place for introspection. You can shout about being the best band in the world, but what we really want to hear from Bono is this thoughtful stuff from an interview with ASCAP: In our densely populated airwaves, space is the most valuable real-estate. The final mark of greatness, I think, is emptiness. The least you need. That is true of music, painting, of anything. The less you can do it with, the more powerful you are. It is true of combat.

And, elaborating on a subject close to your editor’s heart (in our little world, we don’t want to know how music is made, and prefer to believe it’s witchcraft – and we make an effort to avoid the subject in our dealings with musicians), he muses:
A criticism of our recent work is that, in a way, we have learned the craft, and it nearly ruined us. Because, in the end it is magic. The magician pulls a rabbit from the hat, and he is as surprised as the audience. And God has to walk through the room, as I think Quincy Jones describes it. All your best work you can’t claim, but all the average work you can.