Quotes from Dolores O'Riordan

The first album didn't become successful until the second was practically written.

My husband Don's mother, Denise, was diagnosed with cancer, and she was given eight months to live. We decided to go and stay there and help live her days with her, 'cause you don't get those chances again, right?

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.

For me, you can't be a big fat pig up there, slovenly and singing croaky and whatnot. You have to work.

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.

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 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.

I don't appreciate people invading my privacy.

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

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.

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 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.

We were never a frivolous band; we prided ourselves on having something to say, and I think that's what gives your songs longevity.

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.

I'm an icon. I'm the Queen of Limerick.

It's a great gig, really: getting on stage, playing the guitar, singing. For a living, it's super.

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

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.

You never find peace in this realm, but it's okay, because when my dad went to the other side, he looks after me now better than he did in life. He is with me all the time.

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

I got to a point where I referred to myself as Dolores of the Cranberries instead of myself because I alienated my real self from what I became so much.

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 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.

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.