Sinead O'Connor Quotes & Sayings

They're my positive chaos, my children. — Sinead O'Connor

I think people think they're not brave if they're frightened, and that's not true at all. — Sinead O'Connor

I suppose in some ways, all over the world "crazy" is a term of abuse and I think that is something that should be stopped. In Ireland "crazy" is a term of abuse and people are terrified of anything that they conceive to be crazy. And the people believed to be crazy won't be treated compassionately, they will treat you horribly and use it as a reason to dismiss anything you would think, do, say or feel, so you're rocking into a self esteem trap. — Sinead O'Connor

Maybe it was mean, but I really don't think so. You asked for the truth and I told you. — Sinead O'Connor

All of my life, actually, I had a real strong relationship with God, but I was always in the closet about it. The only distance out of the closet I really want to come there is having my tattoo or wearing my t-shirt. — Sinead O'Connor

My favorite way of working is if somebody gives me a piece of music, because I'm quite limited as a player, so it's my favorite thing if somebody gives me a piece of music, and then I can write lyrics and melodies. — Sinead O'Connor

What pisses me off is when I've got seven or eight record company fat pig men sitting there telling me what to wear. — Sinead O'Connor

The trouble when you have a job like mine is it's your social life as well, so I need to actually [find] something to do in my downtime when my kids are at school. — Sinead O'Connor

Generally I don't listen to sad songs if I'm sad. I listen to happy songs. — Sinead O'Connor

God's place is the world but the world is not God's place ... — Sinead O'Connor

There is a God. God exists. — Sinead O'Connor

People who express suicidal feelings are least likely to act on them. — Sinead O'Connor

I think in the first place hearing the music inside of you is very soothing, very comforting. For me there always been, if you like, a spiritual connection between myself and music. — Sinead O'Connor

You can't have a church run by people who don't believe in God. — Sinead O'Connor

Suicide doesn't solve your problems. It only makes them infinitely, un-countably worse. — Sinead O'Connor

I think people who come from abuse and/or people who have mental illnesses, have terrible self-esteem problems. — Sinead O'Connor

When I sing, it's the most solitary state: just me, and the microphone, and the holy spirit. It's not about notes or scales, it's all about emotion. — Sinead O'Connor

When you're young, you don't really know quite what you're aiming at. You're very impulsive and acting on impulse, which is very important and valuable. But you're kind of swimming in a blind sea. When you get older, you have more of a sense of direction. — Sinead O'Connor

Unfortunately in my case, because of what I do for living, here in Ireland is very hard for me to find a doctor who can just deal with me as a person, that can get beyond Sinead O'Connor. I had to go to England to find a psychiatrist for my case. — Sinead O'Connor

What I'm interested in is the protection of children from violence, and they are exposed to violence every single day in the form of, as it's called, the news. Then you wonder why the children are running around, doing the things in the streets, doing the things that they've seen the adults doing in the so-called news. — Sinead O'Connor

I guess there's a song for absolutely everything that could possibly happen to a person. — Sinead O'Connor

The important thing about "brave" is, it doesn't mean you're not terrified. — Sinead O'Connor

The sexuality is being sold to the artists as power when in fact it's not; it's a way of hypnotizing their audience. — Sinead O'Connor

We have a tradition of passing our history orally and singing a lot of it and writing songs about it and there's kind of a calling in Irish voices when they're singing in their Irish accent. — Sinead O'Connor

Look at all our old men in pubs. Look at all our young people on drugs. — Sinead O'Connor

My story is the story of countless millions of children whose families and nations were torn apart for money in the name of Jesus Christ. — Sinead O'Connor

I'm a great cleaner. I'm actually kind of addicted to cleaning. I could clean anything. — Sinead O'Connor

I've been married before, but I've never had my dream wedding in Vegas. I wanted to do it there because it's casual, quick, not religious and, most of all, very romantic. — Sinead O'Connor

Until everyone in this country over 35 has passed away, the theocracy will still be alive. And I am not actually of the theocracy, and that could bother people. I think I've probably taken a bit of flak for that, as well as being an arsehole occasionally, obviously. — Sinead O'Connor

Songs are like ropes that you can kind of hang on to or pull yourself up on. — Sinead O'Connor

I love songs, and I love songwriting, and there's a standard of songwriting within Chicago blues in particular. I don't like the sad blues, necessarily; the Chicago blues is what I like, which is the kind of blues you can dance to. — Sinead O'Connor

When you have mental illness you don't have a plaster or a cast or a crutch, that let everyone know that you have the illness, so people expect the same of you as from anyone else and when you are different they give you a hard time and they think you're being difficult or they think you're being a pain in the ass and they're horrible to you. You spend your life in Ireland trying to hide that you have a mental illness. — Sinead O'Connor

What I like about being a musician is that I find the thing soothing, but I also give the soothing to other people; — Sinead O'Connor

It was the case in the 70s and 80s that people believed music could change the world. But now people aren't making music because they want to change the world; they're making music because they want to just make a ton of money. — Sinead O'Connor

We can love religion as we need rituals, but The Holy Spirit is a bird, free to fly and land where it likes. We don't actually need 'religion' in order to have a relationship with The Holy Spirit. Too many wars an violence over religion.We need to see it's all the same spirit and we are part of that spirit so we shouldn't be fighting over what name we call it. It's a free bird. — Sinead O'Connor

Biggest lesson I've ever had in life is that blues had a baby and they named it rock 'n' roll. — Sinead O'Connor

Fame is a curse ... it was the worst phase of my life, which I thank God I'll never have to go through again. — Sinead O'Connor

You have to hide what you are and it's really stressful and very bad for your self esteem. Because it's not obvious to people that you are ill, they treat you as if you're a pain in the ass, then you beat yourself up and you are already beating yourself up as a part of mental illness. — Sinead O'Connor

I really believe that God and religion is two different things. — Sinead O'Connor

In my belief, there's one spirit. I prefer to call it the Holy Spirit. I don't think it matters if you call it God or Allah or Jesus or Fred or David or too early in the morning or whatever. — Sinead O'Connor

You also said in Rolling Stone that your look is based on mine. The look I chose, I chose on purpose at a time when my record company were encouraging me to do what you have done. I felt I would rather be judged on my talent and not my looks. I am happy that I made that choice, not least because I do not find myself on the proverbial rag heap now that I am almost 47 yrs of age.. which unfortunately many female artists who have based their image around their sexuality, end up on when they reach middle age. — Sinead O'Connor

It's been seven hours and fifteen days, since you took your love away. — Sinead O'Connor

I don't want any man to have control over me. — Sinead O'Connor

This is how you know religion is failing because people think you're bonkers if you believe in God and also because it's so uncool believing in Jesus and everything. — Sinead O'Connor

I understand that we are actually complicated people but we are also dreadfully simple. — Sinead O'Connor

There's a difference between, you know, God loves unconditionally in my feeling and religion loves conditionally. Religion spends an awful lot of time dictating who God can love and can't love. — Sinead O'Connor

I think there's a lot that's beautiful about religion and very inspiring, obviously, but I do think that God needs to be rescued from religion actually. — Sinead O'Connor

I am catholic. And I don't like to see catholicism being brought into disrepute by those in charge who don't seem to believe in God at all ... they act like they don't think God is watching. — Sinead O'Connor

I listen to, like, funky Chicago blues. I love blues, but I love the funky, happy blues. There's a song about pretty much everything, including kidney stones, believe it or not. So there's something there for whatever you happen to be suffering, you know? — Sinead O'Connor

Women are to be valued for so much more than their sexuality — Sinead O'Connor

I suppose the danger when you have a job that involves writing is you can be a bit isolated. — Sinead O'Connor

I'm on fire when I'm singing, I'm completely in character, I use my sense memories, and every syllable of it is meant. It's a very special thing. — Sinead O'Connor

I think that music has been a great help to me and this has been confirmed by every psychiatrist I have seen. I would probably be dead if not for music. — Sinead O'Connor

I am someone who really does believe very strongly in the Holy Spirit. I feel I'm someone who, since I was a very, very small child, of being engaged in a very strong relationship with the Holy Spirit. — Sinead O'Connor

Easy to keep faith. God is good. Only one mistake he made. Free will, therefore can't intervene unless we ask, but gospels show, when we ask we must believe we will be answered. Then all manner of things will be well. — Sinead O'Connor

I know that I have done many things to give you reason not to listen to me — Sinead O'Connor

That's my feeling - that real God and religion are two different things and that religion is trying to obscure what God really is. — Sinead O'Connor

You must not try to be too pure, you must fly closer to the sea. — Sinead O'Connor

I had developed manic depression [bipolar disorder] ... and the main symptoms the constant voice in the head telling you to kill yourself. — Sinead O'Connor

I think a lot of artists go waving their Grammies around thanking God for their Grammy, but when it comes to a pitch battle in the street for the honor of God, none of them is anywhere to be found. — Sinead O'Connor

When I kissed you, you didn't mind. I thought I tasted of too many cigarettes, but you tasted like wine. — Sinead O'Connor

As far as I'm concerned, I'm now in the business of making spiritual records and using my voice for that purpose. — Sinead O'Connor

Irish artists have a tradition of being very heavily engaged in what is happening in their own society. So it was important that they had a voice. — Sinead O'Connor

I was getting a lot of pressure from people in show business about my being overweight because of medication, I was on 200 mg of amitriptiline. When I said this to my doctor, for some reason she took me completely off medication and she didn't really supervise properly. — Sinead O'Connor

I grew up in a situation of extreme abuse, but there was no chance to talk about it, so music became the escape if you like. — Sinead O'Connor

It should be a crime to abandon your child, and it's not. It would be wonderful if it could be criminalized. — Sinead O'Connor

I suppose the biggest change to me is this kind of very oversexualizing of everything. Not that anyone wants to take the sex out of rock 'n' roll, you know - that would be ludicrous - but it seems that everything now, it's like the sexuality is the only voice; everything else is gone. — Sinead O'Connor

There's a standard of songwriting that, when you start immersing yourself in those types of songs, it raises your own bar as a songwriter. There's also simplicity in the songwriting. It's much harder to be simple than it is to be complicated. — Sinead O'Connor

I find that as a female boss in the music industry, it's difficult to actually be treated as if you actually are the boss and to have people act on your instructions and take you seriously. Like you call up people who are working for you and say, "I'd like to see such-and-such document," and they tell you that you don't need it. Then you have to spend time convincing them that it doesn't matter whether they think you need it or not, they're supposed to hand it to you. — Sinead O'Connor

God is something that needs rescuing from religion. — Sinead O'Connor

The music business is a place where the artists are all treated like we're working for the people who are working for us. That can obviously be exaggerated when you're a female. — Sinead O'Connor

I only feel better because people aren't being so abusive to me about my weight. — Sinead O'Connor

I don't do anything in order to cause trouble. It just so happens that what I do naturally causes trouble. I'm proud to be a troublemaker. — Sinead O'Connor

God needs to get rescued from religious music. — Sinead O'Connor

It's very hard to be perceived as a boss, and behaving like a boss or wanting to be treated like one. — Sinead O'Connor

I don't want to go shoving what I believe down anyone's throat. Whatever I believe about Jesus is a personal thing, but it doesn't exclude all the others. — Sinead O'Connor

I'm a Holy Spirit maniac, yeah. When I say maniac, to me, a maniac is a person that goes around telling you what you should believe. You know, you have to believe what I believe, and I don't believe that. — Sinead O'Connor

It's OK to assert yourself. Obviously, as a woman, I do experience the consequence of asserting yourself - you're not supposed to assert yourself. — Sinead O'Connor

People often talk about me as a singer, but they don't often talk about you when you're a woman as a songwriter. — Sinead O'Connor

When you dishonor the the utter glory and majesty of black people, you lie. Your heart lies to you and you let it — Sinead O'Connor

I have also Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and I wouldn't have survived that if not for music. So I think for me, music was a soothing thing and it was also a place where you could say all the stuff that you couldn't say anywhere else. — Sinead O'Connor

There's nothing in the recent past I want to write about. — Sinead O'Connor

Minors should not be exposed to what is going on in the so-called news. — Sinead O'Connor

When I grew up in Ireland in the seventies there was no such thing as therapy ... I mean we didn't even have cappuccinos until 1998! So for me music was therapy, it was also the place where one could speak about himself, where he was allowed to speak about his traumatic experiences. — Sinead O'Connor

Every pore of you is crying and you don't even understand why or what. I actually kind of died and got born again as a result of taking the meds and having a chance to, you know, build a life. — Sinead O'Connor

Nobody gets between me and my microphone. — Sinead O'Connor

Protection of children from violence and abuse has always been my main activity or campaign. — Sinead O'Connor

When you live with the Devil you learn there's a God very quickly. — Sinead O'Connor

People always complain, 'you never invited me to your wedding', but I prefer casual weddings. — Sinead O'Connor

I have always had a good functioning in my artistic life, but I had problems mostly in my private life, I got very angry with my boyfriends and stuff ... I would probably have good reasons to be angry but the volume would be too high, just getting to some level of wounding that perhaps was not appropriate to the actual offence committed. — Sinead O'Connor

At some point the entire population of the earth is gonna have to look back at the kind of essence of spirituality which is basically caring about each other. — Sinead O'Connor

As long as the house of The Holy Spirit remains a haven for criminals the reputation of the church will remain in ruins. — Sinead O'Connor

I could stand in the street and sing and get enough to pay the bills. I don't need millions of dollars. — Sinead O'Connor

I have no shame around the fact that I can be shot into suicidal feelings by certain people's treatment of me. I am no different to any other person, I therefore act as I believe any other person should be free to. — Sinead O'Connor

There's a weighing kind of overemphasis on sexuality, which disempowers music generally, because it silences all the other voices; it makes music a very powerless force for changing the world. — Sinead O'Connor

I feel that I was a useful contributor to society, and that I couldn't be a contributor to society in any other way. — Sinead O'Connor

We're exposing our minors to abuse by the fact that they leave the radio on in the car and let them listen to the news on the way to school. Or the fact that it's shown on the news, the children can see Gaddafi's face and his glorious Technicolor clothes getting shot off on the news or on the newspaper shelves. In the shelves of the shops where all the sex magazines are consciously put at the top, if they're consciously put at the top, that must mean the violence is all put at the bottom consciously. — Sinead O'Connor

I've been married three times, really I should only have been married once. — Sinead O'Connor

I don't feel like me unless I have my hair shaved. So even when I'm an old lady, I'm going to have it. — Sinead O'Connor

I don't agree with this romantic fantasy that people who suffer from depression are more likely to be artists. I find that I am more creative when I am happy actually. — Sinead O'Connor