It wasn't so long ago that it was not popular to speak Gaelic in Ireland because the areas that Gaelic is spoken in were much poorer areas.

I am really a very shy person. If I appear, it is because of the music, not because I want to be seen.

I didn't expect such a huge reaction, but I knew I was doing something different to everything else that was happening at the time.

Singing in Gaelic is very, very natural to do. I think lends itself very much so to being sung.

My first language is Gaelic.

The Druids held the trees as very sacred.

I do a so-called trip into myself: I sit down at the piano and the melody might start to evolve from my playing or then I might start to sing it.

The music sold itself before anybody knew who I was.

Fame and success are very different things.

When I was growing up, I'd be in the choir. My mum was the organist in the church, so I'd sing in the church.

Writing music on your own makes you think a lot about your life. Who are you? Would you change anything about yourself? This is where it comes from.

The ocean is a central image. It is the symbolism of a great journey.

As with anything creative, change is inevitable.

I can only be who I am.

The minuses of celebrity include having to live with security and the knowledge that you may be stalked.

Over in the UK, the music press can be brutal. They can say wonderful things about you one week, and the next week, you're in the can.

The personal appearances and red carpet events are very glitzy, but it's a bit false.

I told the record company I didn't feel the need to be at red-carpet events. I wanted a career. But I wanted to keep myself intact as a person.

I use my voice as an instrument.

I enjoyed the two years I was with Clannad. I enjoyed touring. We toured a lot in Europe.

I don't have pets, I have two guard dogs; and I don't do my own shopping; it's a security thing.

The writing of a melody is an emotional moment; success doesn't make it easy.

I do promotion when it is necessary, but I always want to get back to the music.

I could have been more famous if I did all the glitzy things, but celebrity always seemed so unnecessary.

People tend to think that because I need all this time on my own in the studio, that I need time on my own, period. And that's not really true.

I tend to listen to the classical composers: Rachmaninov, Satie.

My core beliefs revolve around the idea that we should live to the best of our abilities-we should live and let live.

I am privileged to do a job I love to do. I would never change any moment from my life.

It wasn't so long ago that it was not popular to speak Gaelic in Ireland because the areas that Gaelic is spoken in were much poorer areas.

I know every note in every song, the whole history of it, even parts that were there and are gone.

It's very homely, this castle. It doesn't have huge ballrooms. I didn't want a cold, cavernous place.

I am not reclusive. I just have a private life.

With my music, I can express myself so much. A lot of the fans can sense that I'm relating to them something that's quite personal.

I have had death threats from people with fixations.

The success of Watermark surprised me. I never thought of music as something commercial; it was something very personal to me.

I don't need a man in my life.

There is no formula to it. Writing every song is a little journey. The first note has to lift you.

When making music I sink myself into the process as deeply as I can and forget all of the success.

I'm not one for walking the beaches humming a melody. I love the discipline of sitting in the studio, writing and listening. That is my domain.

I find I'm not one of these composers that are, you know, walking along a beach or walking on the mountainside in County Donegal that's, you know, 'Oh, a melody.' It's more a matter of eventually taking that moment with me to the studio, and it begins to evolve.

The fans are very, very loyal. They're always saying, 'When is the next album?' They know when I finish in the studio it's got to be a few years before the next album.

The spring, summer, is quite a hectic time for people in their lives, but then it comes to autumn, and to winter, and you can't but help think back to the year that was, and then hopefully looking forward to the year that is approaching.

Night has brought to those who sleep, only dreams they can not keep.

The best thanks we could offer those who went before and raised the Irish working class from their knees was to press forward with determination and enthusiasm towards the ultimate goal of their efforts, a Co-operative Commonwealth for Ireland.

We are bound to lose Ireland in consequence of years of cruelty, stupidity and misgovernment and I would rather lose her as a friend than as a foe.

You that would judge me, do not judge alone this book or that, come to this hallowed place where my friends' portraits hang and look thereon; Ireland's history in their lineaments trace; think where man's glory most begins and ends and say my glory was I had such friends.

When the problems in Northern Ireland started, it was not a question of Protestantism or Catholicism, because the Catholic church was the only church at that time-it was a nationalist conflict.

Ireland. Great for the spirit - very bad for the body.

My father was the orphaned son of immigrants to the United States from Ireland. My father never knew his parents. His mother died - we're not sure - either at or shortly after his birth, and he and all of his siblings were placed in orphanages in the Boston area.