Women Pianists

"When entering the studio, I don't know what will happen. 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. At that stage I do not yet have clear ideas about what kind of emotions I would like to express. Until I play the completed piece to Roma and Nicky and when I observe their reactions, the music gets its meaning..."

"For me this career and that I am privileged to do a job I love to do, means really, really much. I would never change any moment from my life. When making music I sink myself into the process as deeply as I can and forget all of the success."

"I could have been more famous if I did all the glitzy things, but celebrity always seemed so unnecessary ... Fame and success are very different things, anyway. The music sold itself before anybody knew who I was, so I felt I had a choice. I told the record company I didn't feel the need to be out there at red-carpet events. I wanted a career. But I wanted to keep myself intact as a person."

"I started writing instrumentals but Roma pointed out they were very visual, so she started writing lyrics .. and Nicky had this idea of creating a wall of sound and started multi-tracking my voice."

"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 ... People feel a very personal connection with the music."

"There might be one little thing that makes all the difference, one note or one word. The fine-tuning is all important, and you've got to stay there until you get it right ... That's why it can take years."

"I am really a very shy person ... If I appear, it is because of the music, not because I want to be seen. I'm not a recluse. I like to go out, but I don't like the glitziness that goes with it."

"I'm very happy as I am. I realise that I made sacrifices early in my career and that it was hard on my relationships because, when I am working, I am very focused and it isn't easy, when you have been in the studio all day, to say to someone, 'I'll meet up with you later on.' I learned that it was necessary to be dedicated and put work first. But, at the same time, it was a wonderful feeling to be successful at doing something I loved."

"When I left school, I had a list of priorities headed by 'marriage' and 'children'. That is how, I suppose, as a woman, you are brought up to think. At the same time, as I grew older, I told myself that if it happens, it happens, and that will be fine, but if it doesn't, that will be fine, too."

"I loved to talk about music to Nicky ... His influence came from people like The Beatles and The Beach Boys, and he had these ideas about layering vocals, painting landscapes with music. Roma knew about Irish mythology, told stories, wrote poetry and had this special feeling for lyrics. My grounding came from the classics."

"Sitting and 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. It is like having a mirror held up in front of you, looking into yourself and asking these questions."

"What I was looking for was a romantic athmosphere that I could feel at home with. I think I've achieved that. I love my home. I have friends round. I take care to live in it, not to work in it."

"I'm sometimes asked what are the pluses and minuses of celebrity ... and, for me, the biggest plus is being successful at something that I love to do. The minuses, unfortunately, include having to live with security and the knowledge that you may be stalked. ... I do like people ... I have lots of friends, but I can only be who I am."

"I live in Victorian Gothic castle in Killiney that I was so bold as to rename Manderley, because Daphne du Maurier 's Rebecca is one of my favourite books. ... People have this image of me as an ethereal Lady of Shalott, floating across the battlements, but it's a very small castle as castles go — with no big ballrooms... I don't write my music in my home, only in the studio; I want as normal life as possible at home, with dinner parties and entertaining."

"The success of Watermark surprised me. I never thought of music as something commercial; it was something very personal to me... The writing of a melody is an emotional moment; success doesn't make it easy."

"I felt as if we were two families: the older ones, who were away touring when I was at school and the younger ones. I was closer to my two younger sisters because of the nearness of our ages, but I feel I would have to have permission to say their names — they're very private that way."

"I joined my family's band, Clannad , as a teenager in 1980 to sing harmonies and play keyboards, but it wasn't musically challenging for me; I felt like an outsider. ... My split from Clannad two years later caused a conflict of loyalty for a time, because I went off with their manager Nicky Ryan, who had asked me to join Clannad in the first place."

"Enya is more than just me. It's also Nicky, who arranges my melodies, and his wife Roma, who writes the lyrics. They believed in my music from day one"

"I have never come close to being married or engaged. I was with someone eight years ago when I questioned whether I wanted the pressure of being married or having children. I always felt that if pregnancy was to happen, it would happen; if it didn't, it didn't. ... I have security, I don't need a man in my life. I don't have pets, I have two guard dogs; and I don't do my own shopping; it's a security thing....The downside of success is stalkers. I have had death threats from people with fixations who need help."

"Saol na saol, tús go deireadh. Tá muid beo go deo."

"My light shall be the moon And my path, the ocean. My guide, the morning star As I sail home to you."

"When the evening falls and the daylight is fading, From within me calls — could it be I am sleeping? For a moment I stray, then it holds me completely. Close to home, I cannot say."

"The bright days of my youth They were full of hope The great journey that was before me then Was what was destined to be, bye bye. Now I'm sorrowful, The day is long past. Alas and woe, oh."

"How far to go I cannot say. How many more Will journey this way?"

"All days come from one day that much you must know, you cannot change what's over but only where you go."

"Each heart is a pilgrim, each one wants to know the reason why the winds die and where the stories go."

"Out of night has come the day Out of night, our small earth. Our words drift away. Our words journey to find those who will listen."

"We call out into the distance... Less than a pearl in a sea of stars, we are a lost island in the shadows."

"You know when you give your love away it opens your heart, everything is new. And you know time will always find a way to let your heart believe it's true."

"You know love is everything you say; a whisper, a word, promises you give. You feel it in the heartbeat of the day. You know this is the way love is."

"Amarantine... Love is."

"You know love may sometimes make you cry, so let the tears go, they will flow away, for you know love will always let you fly — how far a heart can fly away!"

"You know when love's shining in your eyes it may be the stars fallen from above. And you know love is with you when you rise, for night and day belong to love."

"Listen to the rain Here it comes again Hear it in the rain Feel the touch of tears that fall — they won't fall forever In the way the day will flow all things come, all things go."

"Late at night I drift away - I can hear you calling, and my name is in the rain, leaves on trees whispering, deep blue sea's mysteries."

"Where are you this moment? only in my dreams. You're missing, but you're always a heartbeat from me."

"Winter lies before me now you're so far away. In the darkness of my dreaming the light of you will stay"

"If I could be close beside you If I could be where you are if I could reach out and touch you and bring you back home Is there a way I can find you Is there a sign I should know Is there a road I could follow to bring you back home to me"

"Our words go beyond the moon. Our words go into the shadows. The river sings the endlessness. We write of our journey through night. We write in our aloneness. We want to know the shape of eternity. Who knows the way it is? Who knows what time will not tell us?"

"Mountains, solitude and the moon until the journey's end? The river holds the lost road of the sky; the shape of eternity?"

"Where is the beginning? Where is the end? Why did we fall into days? Why are we calling out into the endlessness? Who knows the way it is? Who knows what time will not tell us?"

"Long, long journey through the darkness, long, long way to go; but what are miles across the ocean to the heart that's coming home?"

"The poignancy of things A purple flower The blossoms of spring And the light snow of winter How they fall"

"Summer. When the day is over there's a heart a little colder; someone said goodbye, but you don't know why. Somewhere there is someone keeping all the tears they have been weeping, someone said goodbye, but you don't know why."

"Always looking for a meaning, all the time you keep believing, but I don't know why you won't say goodbye. Even when the sun is shining you don't see the silver lining, but I don't know why you won't say goodbye."

"It's only now when words are said that break my heart in two, I wonder how you can endure all I've said, all I say to you."

"After all the words are said, after all the dreams we made; every one a precious one, every one a summer sun..."

"A moment lost, forever gone, can never be again, so know how much it means to me; all you said, all you gave, all your love to me."

"A million feathers falling down, a million stars that touch the ground, so many secrets to be found amid the falling snow."

"The silence of a winter's night brings memories I hold inside; remembering a blue moonlight upon the fallen snow."