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" I don't like false happy endings, and I don't think the real world is such a forgiving place. "

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" If you can say something beautiful in a very terrible way - I was always drawn to that. "

" One of my favorite books is 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' by George Orwell, and 'Catcher in the Rye,' obviously, is a big influence and is one of my favorites. "

" Blues is a very physical music. "

" I think my parents took me to see Sting when I was very, very young. "

" I think it's very hard to write things about being joyful. I find that quite difficult. I think when you're happy, you don't want to write songs; you just want to enjoy being happy. "

" Things were never as exciting for me as the first gig in New York. "

" There's not a lot of room for thinking in popular culture; there's not a lot of room for being conflicted. "

Popular Culture

" The way I did the first album... the way I wrote 'Church'... was just to trust my instincts with the music and let it kind of do what it does. "

" I think it is important to differentiate between lip service towards something and actually making change. "

" Growing up in Ireland, there are a lot of aspects of God that hang in the air. And my music reflects that. "

" I love Muddy Waters and Nina Simone. I also watched 'The Blues Brothers' movie over and over. "

" Either somebody has equal rights, or they don't. And certainly in the Irish constitution, marriage is genderless. There's no mention of a man and a woman. "

" The first time I heard Tom Waits, it was like everything just flipped. It was just this fascination with him. My cousin showed me 'Small Change,' and I just couldn't get over that this was a white guy singing. "

" I hate nightclubs, and I get fed up very quickly in crowded rooms. I enjoy being around people I know. "

" I'd love to do something with somebody like James Blake. "

" Biggest musical influences would be people like Nina Simone and Tom Waits. A huge amount of writers like Leslie Feist and Paul Simon. "

" I try to face things without regret, or make sure that I'm happy with things and leave nothing unsaid if I can. "

" Especially on the road, it's very hard to find time to actually sit down and write. "

" Anyone close to me will be familiar with my frustrations with certain aspects of social media: the behaviour it encourages and attitudes towards the self it can breed. "

" I've definitely received a lot of support in Nashville; it's a huge music town. I like country music. Like any genre I'm largely unfamiliar with, there are elements I really enjoy and elements that go over my head. "

" I remember one of the first albums I got was an album called 'Thin Lizzy: Live and Dangerous.' "

" All songs, all pieces of art, reflect the world that they were made in and the values of those artists and the hopes and aspirations of the people who listen to that music and who made that music. "

" I feel my duty is to make music. "

" There are a few Irish writers who have a very strong influence on me, especially on the 'Take Me to Church' EP. "

" Religion wasn't imposed on me. "

" I have very strong feelings about a lot of things. I am sometimes reluctant to come straight to the forefront with it. You know, first and foremost, I'm a musician. I'm a songwriter. "

" It's a surreal experience filming promotion with Ryan Seacrest and meeting Top 40 pop artists. "

" To be honest, the biggest reason I write music and became a musician was to create the amount of joy that I felt about music to anyone else. To me, that's a job well done. "

" I had a fascination with the roots of African American music. That would have been my first education in music. I had a real passion for it. I wanted to play it, sing it. I could sing at a young age, but I started to teach myself bass guitar and started writing when I was 15. "

" My dad was a blues musician around Dublin when I was a baby, so the only music I would listen to growing up was John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters. It's music that feels like home to me. "