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My kids mean more to me than anything I thought was important when I was younger.
Dolores O'Riordan
I didn't really know many girls, growing up, because there weren't many other people living around where I lived.
I love performing, and I love the idea of people buying records. I don't particularly like the idea of people knowing me or thinking they do, but that's a part of what I choose. I choose not to go to college; I choose to be a singer.
I didn't get a lot of attention from my dad when I was young. That's a big part of it for girls. Because your dad is the first love of your life. If he doesn't put you on his lap and give you a pet, you do end up not really liking yourself that much.
You can't be in a situation where you are not happy. It's as simple as that.
When I was about 14, I got a tacky keyboard for 250 pounds and put on a drum machine and found I could write a song.
It was tough. We went right from being teenagers to musical superstars with money and fame and attention. All of us had a hard time adjusting to it, especially me.
People don't look at you singing. They go within themselves and listen. Music is about listening, not looking. That's why I wore these huge baggy dresses on stage with The Cranberries.
It was great about the sizes of the audiences we were getting in America, but sometimes you feel like telling some of the men that you're not on stage to have your body looked at.
I love to go home to my kids. I don't have that lull in my life when I didn't have them.
I am just trying to live for my kids. It is all about my kids now. I love them endlessly.
I lived in a small village outside the city and grew up in a large family, so my world was very much centred around that. I used to sing in the local church, and I would also occasionally sing in the local pubs for which I used to get a few bob. That, for me, was the start of my interest in music, which has obviously expanded since then.
When everybody's looking at you, it does your head in. When you're always on the inside, sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees.
I've come to the conclusion that life is for the taking and just too short to dwell on the negative.
I was a full-time mom for seven years. You go back on tour, you're back in hotels, you're ordering room service, and you're getting an itinerary slipped under your door every,day. You're kind of thinking, 'Did I go home for seven years, or was that just a dream?'
As you get older, it's good to open up and acknowledge that everybody has their scary moments, their negative moments. And in order to move on and find comfort and hope, you have to stop running from the darkness and face it. And when you face it, it's not that scary at all, and sometimes it actually turns around and runs away.
It's important to take time off because it's a long journey this life, and I want to be singing in 30 years' time. You see a lot of artists who get caught up in the here and now, and they just burn themselves out, and I kind of did that myself with my third album.
My father, I spent a lot of time with him at the hospital. I was with him when he took his last breath, but I felt something coming from him into my hand and into my body.
I worked myself into a frenzy. By 1996, I had a nervous breakdown just from working. I couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, just getting anxiety attacks and all of that stuff because I was doing too much, too young, all the time.
It's amazing to see anyone come out, let alone tell you they have been waiting so long. They are loyal people, our fans.
When the Greatest Hits came out and we did that tour, I just felt I wanted to take a break, totally. Probably because, as well, I was so young when I got famous. I did album, tour, album, tour, album, tour, then I had a public nervous breakdown where I just lost tons of weight.
I was so young when I got so famous, and then I kind of put up a wall around myself. I didn't really want to show people any fragilities or fears; I was trying to be this tough person that I felt was expected of me.
Men have no idea how much more difficult it is for women in the Rock&Roll industry, and while we are trying to give birth, breastfeed, all they do is have a good time.
I guess all bands get to that point where they run out of inspiration and just get bored with the chemistry.
For a while there, our writing got really edgy... I've always written about experiences, so when your life gets a bit crazy, you start to write songs that are a bit edgy.
Only we were in The Cranberries. Only we know what it was like being in that crazy whirlwind of fame. We have children and spouses and lives, but there is only one Cranberries.
I always come across like I'm looking serious, but I just don't like smiling. Honestly, obviously I'm different in person.
I think there's a difference between somebody who grows up in Paris or London and goes to Los Angeles. But if you grow up in the green fields, and you rarely go into the city, you're so overprotected that when you do go to L.A., it's almost a bigger slap in the head.
U2 and Sinead O'Connor - I haven't a clue why we're compared to them. Apart from us all being Irish, we've nothing in common.
I guess the way to keep a grip on reality is just to take breaks in between albums like most normal bands do. Go home and be a person and hang out with your friends. Do separate things and get back to earth and write songs and go out there again.
Not everybody wanted a female to be the front face of a big band, you know... You had to be three times better than a man had to be.
I look like that in the morning: my hair's all greasy - it's not, 'Hey, look at the babe of the band!' I hate that kind of thing, the way women are always pushed forward as beauties... it's very easy: you can make the ugliest pig look lovely in a photograph.
For me, you can't be a big fat pig up there, slovenly and singing croaky and whatnot. You have to work.
You know that band that are all over 'Melody Maker', Huggy Bear, they're just a load of crap, right? Riot grrrl group - y'know, it's all sexism and stuff, women standing up for their rights: 'This girl said this at the gig off the stage.' It's nothing got to do with music. They're probably untalented gits when it comes to the crunch.
We all wonder about death, where people go and what happens. But certainly, they cross over from this dimension to another one.
It's very difficult to break in Europe unless you break in England, and it's very difficult to break in England if you're Irish.
My priorities were taking the kids to school and being a mum and being a daughter and being a sister. Just spending a lot of that time with my family that I'd probably lost a lot of, touring with the Cranberries.
I keep my children safe and protected from all my baggage. They get to have a normal childhood, and they're not affected by my life.
I enjoyed living in Canada, where my husband comes from, because I was treated like any ordinary person. I became a volunteer at my children's school; I went into the classroom. It was very grounding. I got sick of being famous.
We were never a frivolous band; we prided ourselves on having something to say, and I think that's what gives your songs longevity.
There's always a party in my bus.
It's a great gig, really: getting on stage, playing the guitar, singing. For a living, it's super.
It was different to what everyone else was doing. It was very hard to pigeonhole The Cranberries. And we were just huge; it was just sensational.
To me, life is a bit of everything. I have the band, I have my kids. Life is a big picture. It's not just your career.
Room service is nice. Ooh-la-la, a hotel. At home, it's laundry and school lunches.
The writing became a hobby in the background: it took a back seat to parenthood and being a person and being a human being.
When you're pregnant or living with an infant, there's a kind of sacredness around your body that affects everything you do.
The first album didn't become successful until the second was practically written.
I just block out the demons. I sing. I block them away. I put my pain into my music. I paint. I make my own videos. I direct myself. No one directs me anymore. I am in charge of my destiny.
In 1997, we took time off, and that's when Oasis broke and Princess Diana died and I was home with my baby hating the music industry. People asked what I thought about the Spice Girls, and honestly, I was so happy to tell them I couldn't be bothered to care.
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