I wouldn't say I was bullied per se, but I did get a lot of unwanted attention because I was musical and stood out. In school you don't want to stand out; you want to blend in.

I've managed to keep my career going in a way that suits me. I'll perform, and then I'll go home to my actual life, and I've never been so visible.

I've been, I think, able to stay grounded in such a crazy business, and I attribute that a lot to my family, and especially to my mother. Because, you know, she just was always there to kind of remind me of what priorities should be. O.K., yes, I'm an artist, I'm a performer, but I'm a sister, I'm a daughter, I'm a granddaughter, I'm an aunt. Those things have to be as important, if not more important, than my career.

I think that celebrities should never underestimate their power. I mean just to draw attention, because then people get involved on a personal level.

I think any parent that makes their kid sit at a piano against their will and practice, they're going to have a kid that's not going to want to play the piano.

I did, like, a couple of sexier videos, because all of a sudden I went, 'Wow, I have a body. I have this side of me that I haven't shown yet.' And I started kind of playing around with that side of things.

I spent a lot of my life schlepping around New York with people not doing things for me.