Carla: Your militancy for organizations, your devotion to others, all this work is impressive when as a rock star you could be content with the fantastic life of an artist. I was wondering if the enormous energy and sharp global awareness one feels in your writing came from your Irish blood...
Bono: It's clearly something like that. Moral indignation, yeah, that'd be us. The Irish are funny, but they have a melancholy that can turn into rage – good or bad. You find that in our politics. And in our art. The Irish are obsessed with politics. Every taxi driver, bartender, clerk, and especially the women. Artists express this indignation even when they try to avoid it.
Yeah, the Irish are funny. In literature, for example, their revenge on the English after political oppression was to take their language, twist it, wring it out, stretch it out, or shrink it. It's really flagrant in Joyce, Yeats, Wilde, and Beckett. But my Irish nature isn't the only thing that explains my active commitments. It's a form of egotism, actually. See, I find that the life of artists whose motivation depends a great deal on narcissism leads to a state of chronic unhappiness, of relishing one's own moroseness. Fighting for others got me out of that; it's like I'm working outside myself. Yes, that's it: working for others and with others saved my life.
For those who can read French, click here for the entire interview.
For an English translation, click here.
source:www.atu2.com//http://madame.lefigaro.fr/
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