I believe this song to be about the superficiality of
love. Bono appears to be singing as though he is lamenting over
all the conditions etc that his love is putting on their
relationship. She is asking for all these material items, and
promising how great it will make their love. This means nothing
to him though. In the end, all promises will eventually be
broken and meaningless. Bono doesn't feel any of these promises
are necessary. He doesn't care for the little superficial
things she wants or is offering, because really all he wants is
her - not the promises, not the material items - just her.
This may relate in some way to his wife Ali, because I believe
at one stage they were having many problems, which may have
been related to demands by her on their relationship. Bono may
have been writing as a way of expressing that while they were
having problems, he still loved her beyond all of
that. However, all of this may very well be false.
I would guess the basic meaning is about how Bono wished that whatever relationship he is refering to was a lot simpler and could just be, instead of having conditions put on it.
Ted Beak ted
bartholomew.com.au (28:th of November 1998)
"A lot of videos seek to explain the songs; whereas, this is more of a parallel to the song. We're using the story ... of Gianni, the circus dwarf, and Rossa, the beautiful trapeze artist, as a way of explaining the theme of the song." -Bono in the video clip from U2.com, Rare footage from the making of the "All I Want Is You" video.
From Salvation in the Blues, compiled by Chris Taguchi christaguchi.ca (3rd of April 2007)