Dolores O'Riordan Quotes

My advice is: if you've got to be miserable to write great music, then drive a truck.

Everybody in my band is married, pretty much, and have lives at home, and I don't want them to be away from their families so long that they just start to feel psychotic. You have to go home and stand around in your bathrobe doing your dishes to feel like a normal person sometimes.

Sometimes it helps to take a couple days off, as weird as that sounds. Every once in a while, I could just shoot so many shots. You can get so, like, intense with it all. It's like in life, right? We're all created for a sabbath day or for a day of rest. You sometimes need that in shooting, too.

If I don't feel like writing on a certain day, I just go to the cafe and hang around.

People have to understand how important it is for the players to let off steam, switch off and relax.

The challenge in my life really is keeping the balance between feeling creatively energized and fulfilled without feeling overwhelmed and like I'm in the middle of a battlefield.

I also find doing the mundane, everyday things in life has a calming, creative influence on me. Some of my best ideas come when I'm vacuuming or waiting in lines.

After 'Memory Keeper's Daughter,' it took me a few months to shut out the world. I really had to turn off the Internet and sort of cloister myself away from the world again and sink into that psychic space to write again.

I want to have time for myself, my family and my friends. It's important because in order to sing well, you must have inspiration, and inspiration comes from life, from living.

My other life keeps me calm and grounded and normal.

There's a balance in my life. There's reality, and there's the part that looks really glamorous, but we're all just people in the end.

I think it's important to have as much as a normal life and take the time to get perspective because it only helps your work in the long run.

The assumption is that your personal life has to be a mess to create, but how much chaos can you allow in before it takes over?

I was so happy to go to prom so I could have a mental break because I've been working so hard. It felt so good to feel normal for once, and then the next day, I was in the gym again.

I'm just trying to get back to normal life.

I used to be on the kitchen floor, crying, wasted and thinking of lyrics. That was the only way I could create - as a tortured artist. I've learned that you can be stable and taking care of yourself and still create beautiful work.

Writing can be a tough gig. Whenever you do something in which you put yourself out there - if that becomes the focus of your life, you miss the point of living. You've really got to get the grounding of family and the things that are important in your life and make that your focus.

I have a really great family, and when I'm not filming, I go home and walk the dogs, take out the garbage, clean my room, all that stuff. My family and my friends keep me in line, and make sure I don't get crazy.

It's good to have a foothold in reality, a base somewhere that's always been a base. Sharman Macdonald once said she needs life to write; she can't write if she's just in theatre all the time. I'm the same way, I think. I've always felt that if my life was all about the job, I wouldn't be so good at the job.

Well, I'm pretty domestic actually. I walk my dog. I go grocery shopping. I hang out with friends. I'm pretty normal, whatever normal is, on my off time.

It's important to just kind of get away from your sport until you miss it. It's about taking time to enjoy other aspects of life or learn new things. It helps rejuvenate.

I took a break after 'Confessions.' I was real picky. And then I suddenly realized I hadn't worked in a year. And I was sort of, like, not really happy. I think people are happier when they have structure, you know? You realize that as you get older. You have to have rituals and structure.

I've taken Saturdays to be the day I pull back completely. I do things that are more creative, and I've actually found that helps me when I get back into work to be more thoughtful, and I truly believe that feeding your creative soul is really important to being more analytical.

There are times when you sit down, and you're just like, 'Man, I don't know if I can do it right now.' Take a second - go to the woods and just hang out, or go to Yosemite and check it out. Be in nature for a little while; clock out - which is super healthy, especially for creative types. Honestly, for everyone. Everyone needs that at times.

I have a regular life, and I do that intentionally: hanging out with my friends, cooking dinner for my boyfriend.