Outspoken Bono's activism has helped save his career as a rock star in U2 - because he's always so grateful for recording session time with his bandmates.
The Where The Streets Have No Name singer has become a leading voice in the war against global poverty, but he insists he could never turn his back on music to become a full-time activist.
And he insists the work he does outside U2 helps him appreciate what he has when the group comes together.
He tells Rolling Stone magazine, "I've spent a lot of time in these two-dimensional worlds - numbers, values, analysis of statistics - and when I get away from it, being with U2 is such a playground.
"It's made me realise how sacred music is. It's a kind of sacrament - like marriage, like friendship.
"I'm not sure the other three in the band know this, because they - maybe sensibly - have avoided that other world. They just think they're in U2, and that's great. But I really know how great it is to be in U2.
"As it became my job to be in a band, you take for granted that you've got a few hours with your mates in the studio. I don't anymore. It is sanctuary and escape from the material world of casualties, profit and loss, cynicism and hard-bitten victories over your own indifference or somebody else's.
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