But my experience is that people who have been through painful, difficult times are filled with compassion.

I started my teenage years singing in churches across America, and finally wound up on a big stage.

To me, the human experience does involve a great deal of anguish. It's joyful, but it's bittersweet. I just think that's life.

Real relationship is gritty and earthy, the stuff that life is made of.

Anybody who's ever gone through a hard time - any outsider's perception, no matter how much information they're given, they have no idea what the person's life is like.

You live in a dangerous place when you sacrifice integrity for security.

The fact of the matter is, when I'm on tour, I'm juggling so hard to keep all the balls in the air that I don't often get to really enjoy what I'm out there doing.