I was signed by L.A. Reid on Arista Records when I was 16. He understood me and believed in me. Arista folded and I got put on RCA or whatever, then there were new people there, and every six months it changes and more new people come in.

I'm very expressive. Expressing my emotions and experiences through music has always been an important outlet for me. Many of my songs are influenced by personal events and experiences that I have gone through.

I don't really care if my clothes are wrinkled or there's a stain on my shirt. Going out on the road, your clothes are dirty.

Well, a lot of people don't know this about me, but I'm actually shy around people I don't know. I would just say with my first concert, my first tour, I didn't really talk onstage. I was like, "Thank you, I love you guys," or whatever. But now I've just kind of learned to work a crowd.

As humans we speak one language.

School teaches you what to do with the rest of your life. I already knew.

The mall tour was right off of my second record, before it came out. It was very different. I did an acoustic performance every day in a different mall! One interesting thing I remember is playing "My Happy Ending" a lot, and that song was so new that I remember getting emotional when I would play it.