...ON MUSIC

Larry: I do believe our music is special. But you have to separate the music from the people. The music is special. But I don't think we are. We are ordinary people.

Larry: I like gaps. I like to be able to feel the music - not to clutter the songs. Lots of new drummers now tend to fill in all the gaps and leave no space.

Larry:I never do things that I've done before. I think I'll always use technology. The difference between me and a lot of drummers is that I need technology because on my own I'm not proficient enough to do all the other stuff. I need the help! So technology has done me a great favour. I'm very thankful for it. I'll use it in different ways in the future but I'll always use it. The real crux of it is using your own loops. making the stuff up yourself. That just changes the landscape. Every drummer thought they were going to be made redundant by the drum machine, and then some were smart enough to use the drum machine to their advantage. I think that's what I'm doing. Otherwise I'm going to be looking for a job (Popmart Tour book).

...ON THE BAND

Larry: I was the guy who borrowed the guitar for the first rehearsal. I borrowed the guitar for the first gig as well. I was in charge, I was the leader of this band for two days. Two days was all I lasted.

Larry: During the course of that very first afternoon, I saw that some people could play. The Edge could play, Adam just looked great. Big bushy hair, long caftan coat, bass guitar and amp. He talked like he could play, used all the right words, like "gig". I thought, this guy must know how to play. Then Bono arrived, and he meant to play the guitar, but he couldn't play very well, so he started to sing. He couldn't do that either. But he was such a charismatic character that he was in the band anyway, as soon as he arrived. I was in charge for the first five minutes, but as soon as Bono got there I was out of a job.

Larry: We are the most unfocused, disorganised band as far as getting it together in the studio. We are so untogether. But that's the beauty of it. There's no formula. We don't know how to do this. People often ask, "why don't you do some stuff like you did on the Joshua Tree". The truth is, we couldn't. We wouldn't know how to repeat ourselves. We're actually not good enough to do it (Popmart tour book).

Larry: The thing that has kept us going is the fact that we are friends. If it had originally been based on our music, we would have failed.

Larry: At school there was a real effort made by the teachers for the students. What they emphasised was that if people were interested in something in particular, say everybody was really good at sport, they would push that person at sport to really help them, rather than discourage them from doing that because it wasn't academic. And that's what really happened with the band because we were all interested in music and practised and worked hard at it, so teachers came behind us, and really started to push and work us. They gave us a room at school to practice in - a really good room, and one teacher in particular, the history teacher was really helpful.

...ON HIMSELF

Larry: I live in a nice house and don't feel bad about it. But I don't drive a flashy car, first of all because I don't want to, and second of all because I think that would be rude in a country like Ireland, where there is high unemployment.

Larry: I am a Christian and not ashamed of that. But trying to explain my beliefs, our beliefs takes away from it. I have more in common with somebody who doesn't believe at all than I do with most Christians. I don't mind saying that.

Bono: My earliest memory of Larry was when we were starting off. We were at our first rehearsal in his kitchen and all these girls kept climbing over the walls and looking in the window at Larry. Larry just shouted at them and told them to go away. And then turned the hose on them! Larry likes to play drums.

...ON DUBLIN

Larry: In Ireland you have to fight - very hard - if you want to do anything different. To be in a band is really, really difficult. There's nowhere to play. But it's and interesting and beautiful place too. I live there now; I wouldn't live anywhere else