 The lyrics were inspired by Norman Mailer's 1980 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Executioner's Song, written about serial killer Gary Gilmore, and by Truman Capote's 1966 novel In Cold Blood. Lead singer Bono had read both novels and wanted to try and write "a story in the mind of a killer". Further reading of Flannery O'Connor and Raymond Carver caused him to try and understand "the ordinary stock first and then the outsiders, the driftwood — those on the fringes of the promised land, cut off from the American dream." Bono described the lyrics as "just a short story really, except I left out a few of the verses because I liked it as a sketch. It's just about a guy who gets an idea into his head. He picks it up off a preacher on the radio or something and goes out ...". He noted that, although 30 songs were in contention for inclusion on the album, he "wanted a song with that sense of violence in it, especially before' Mothers of the Disappeared '."
