I didn't know initially whether I'd like doing TV and whether I'd be able to work with other people. I've always done my own thing. I've never put myself into that situation, but it's the most fun I've had in years.

Sometimes your kids give you that shove out the door to do things that you need. Teenagers are good that way; they keep you in the loop.

I am just trying to live for my kids. It is all about my kids now. I love them endlessly.

Growing up, there was a lot of pressure for women to be good-looking, but my mum was very strict, and she didn't allow me to wear make-up. Looking back, it was good for me. It slowed me down from becoming an adult too quickly.

'Linger' was the first song I wrote after joining the Cranberries. I was 18, and the youngest member of the band was 16 at the time. We never imagined it'd be such a big hit.

I've come to the conclusion that life is for the taking and just too short to dwell on the negative.

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.

The feeling that's in your heart all the time comes out spiritually in your voice and the music.

I love to go home to my kids. I don't have that lull in my life when I didn't have them.

We all wonder about death, where people go and what happens. But certainly, they cross over from this dimension to another one.

In Canada, anything that's not in the city is referred to as a cottage. Or a log cabin.

Room service is nice. Ooh-la-la, a hotel. At home, it's laundry and school lunches.

I went to Irish dance when I was four. I was playing the tin whistle when I was five. So I think certain things are bred into you.

Why can't we actually sing and get respected as good singers and songwriters without having our boobs and butt hanging out?

The school I went to was so Gaelic that you learned how to play the tin whistle and how to Irish-dance in class.

You can't be in a situation where you are not happy. It's as simple as that.

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 don't appreciate people invading my privacy.

Men have no idea how much more difficult it is for women in the rock and roll industry, and while we are trying to give birth, breastfeed, all they do is have a good time.

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.

I'm an artist, and I need to work, like everybody. We need to be challenged and that we're getting up and doing something with our lives.

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 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.

Once you succeed at what you're doing, your parents see that what you were doing wasn't so bad after all, though they'd prefer to see you in a secure lifestyle where you have a contract for years and years, or you have a diploma or degree.