Happy Birthday Enya!

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

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.

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 am not reclusive. I just have a private life.

I find that music makes people just sit and listen, firstly. Then, they seem to interpret their own emotions with the music and it makes them ponder their own life a lot. And then they start to question: Am I happy in my work? Am I happy in my relationships? What am I striving for?

As with anything creative, change is inevitable.

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.

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

It's a noisy environment we all live in, whether it's traffic or the workplace, so it's very difficult to think about your life in general. A lot of people are afraid to do that. They like to hide behind their work and not face up to a big problem in their life.

Fame and success are very different things.

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

Wintertime for me is a time when I do a lot of my writing in the studio. It's a time I enjoy. And it's very reflective and a very calming time of the year. Throughout the year I gather a lot of musical inspirations, and this is where I bring them to the studio and see what will evolve musically.

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.

I can only be who I am.

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

The Druids held the trees as very sacred.

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

I have had death threats from people with fixations.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.