Musician

I educated myself. To me, school was boring.

I think Paul McGuinness and U2 created the Irish music industry. It certainly wasn't there before that.

Music is spiritual. The music business is not.

I never bought the commercial thing, at any stage of the game.

Singing is my profession - there is no plan B.

I do see value in music criticism. Most of the criticism I have received over the years has been very good.

My records do not require a lot of thought of 'What is this?' and 'What is that?' That would be too contrived for me.

If you're a pop singer, you don't need to evolve. You just get a set together, have some hit songs and play them over and over.

For a long time, I couldn't actually deal with playing concerts; it was a totally alien concept to me, 'cause I was used to playing in clubs and dance halls.

You've got to separate the singer and the songs.

My thinking musically has always been more advanced - it is difficult to get it down onto paper sometimes, even now.

I am about the arrangements and the layers of depth in the music.

I don't think nostalgia has to be negative.

If it's what you do and you can do it, then you do it.

Large audiences did not suit my low-key approach.

What you see is what you get.

I'm not a rock singer and I don't want to be a rock singer. I'm not interested. It doesn't seem to get across.

I'd love to live in Ireland but I'd like to live as me, not what someone thinks I am. People don't understand - I lived there before I was famous.

I never paid attention to what was contemporary or what was commercial, it didn't mean anything to me.

I think when you get past your second album, it all becomes something of a routine. So you have to struggle against that, find a way of making what you do sound fresh and new each time.