I try to think about optimism. I try to look at the beautiful things in life.
Dolores O'Riordan
There's no point in getting too worried about things, because life is too short.
Luckily I don't have a sinful past, because there's nothing you can hide from your kids now.
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.
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.
People often ask me why I sing with a strong Irish accent. I suppose when I was five years old, I spoke with a strong Irish accent, so I sang with one, too.
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.
When my grandfather died, I was on tour, and I didn't go to the funeral. I never got to say goodbye, and this is one of the problems of being in a rock band is that you're away, and your loved ones die, and you can't even see them.
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 thought the best thing to do to bring me back to reality would be to have a child, and by the time I had my first, Taylor, when I was 25, we'd sold 35 million records as a band, and I'd had enough; I knew my sanity was more important than success.
I've come to the conclusion that life is for the taking and just too short to dwell on the negative.
The things a young woman goes through between the ages of 18 and 20 are far different than what a young woman can go through between 20 and 22.
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 write about what is getting to me at the time, about the things you need to talk about, but which would sound silly if you sat down and told them to your friend. I only write for myself, to get my emotions out. It's self-therapeutic.
It's amazing to see anyone come out, let alone tell you they have been waiting so long. They are loyal people, our fans.
The feeling that's in your heart all the time comes out spiritually in your voice and the music.
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 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.
Room service is nice. Ooh-la-la, a hotel. At home, it's laundry and school lunches.
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.
I missed a lot of family weddings and funerals because we were out on the road and had these big gigs, and you can't pull out of these gigs at the last minute because too many people are counting on it. It got to the point where I was consumed with that.
I'm an icon. I'm the Queen of Limerick.
I don't appreciate people invading my privacy.
I was at that point where my children needed more than going around the planet in the back of a bus. They needed stability, they needed to build their own lives and relationships, and I needed to put my life on hold. I made my choice - I chose my children.
I lived in buses. I didn't really have anything else. I didn't feel like a female, and I ended up really kind of isolated. Everybody thinks you're so happy and so wealthy and such a big star, but you're really kind of lonely and don't know how to stop it.
I always come across like I'm looking serious, but I just don't like smiling. Honestly, obviously I'm different in person.
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 was 19 when I wrote 'Dreams,' and that would have been when it started to happen. The band got signed, and I was probably beginning to see different things besides my small town of Ballybricken.
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.
I went very close to the edge, but it's nice to have been strong enough to get through it. I'm lucky I had family, a good husband, and my mom. People like that help balance you. When you're feeling down and bad, it's the people that love you who kind of sort your head out for you.
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.
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?'
I was so famous that I couldn't leave the hotel room. I remember looking out of the window at all these fans but just feeling so isolated.
You can't be in a situation where you are not happy. It's as simple as that.
You want to be in control of a lot. You grow up. You sink or swim. I suppose I swam.
We all wonder about death, where people go and what happens. But certainly, they cross over from this dimension to another one.
I hated singing, I hated being on stage; I hated being in the Cranberries. I was constantly crying. I was going insane. I wanted to be a shopkeeper, a hairdresser, anything. I was so desperate to have a reality, friends, a regular, boring life. I missed that.
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.
What's amazing is - I actually have problems getting it into my head - Canada is so big, right? And Ireland's small, you know; you drive from coast to coast in three hours.
One day we were in Limerick... and then, a few weeks later, we were being flown around to play. When we started, it was just a hobby. It wasn't any big ambition.
The school I went to was so Gaelic that you learned how to play the tin whistle and how to Irish-dance in class.
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.
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 pretty weird when you are just touring all the time and you don't have a normal life. You're out of touch with reality too much.
The writing became a hobby in the background: it took a back seat to parenthood and being a person and being a human being.
There's always a party in my bus.
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.
I love to go home to my kids. I don't have that lull in my life when I didn't have them.
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 am just trying to live for my kids. It is all about my kids now. I love them endlessly.
