The most important thing to remember is that you can wear all the greatest clothes and all the greatest shoes, but you’ve got to have a good spirit on the inside. That’s what’s really going to make you look like you’re ready to rock the world.

I grew up around the theatre. My mother is an actress. I would fall asleep on tons of theatre chairs. It's in my blood; it's in my spirit and my fabric of who I am.

You have to identify what you care about and why you care about it. It has to be personal. It has to be something that fires you up or means something to you, or it's not going to drive you.

Things can be really empty in this world, and I don't just mean the music world. It can become a very meaningless place if you don't really understand: Who am I? Why am I here? What am I doing? To feel fulfillment and have a deeper level of understanding, personally, that is the most important thing.

But when I first fell in love with the piano, I knew it was me. I was dying to play.

When I had nothing else, I had my mother and the piano. And you know what? They were all I needed.

I was so deeply involved in music, I had already outgrown all the pressure of high school cliques and gossip.