I just write all the time. In my whole life I've never had what I've heard people talk about writer's block. I've never had that. Life is like a song to me. I just hear everything in music, so I have never once thought "Well, I'm never gonna be able to write again." I've got thousands of songs.

Mine is a jealous heart, imagines things that never are.

I look like a woman, but I think like a man.

My first job was singing on the Cas Walker radio show in Knoxville, Tennessee. I was about 10 years old and I thought it was big time.

I've never been pregnant, so I just feel God didn't mean for me to have kids so that everybody else's children could be mine.

I'm not intimidated by how people perceive me.

I think my life actually changed at 40. That's when you realize you can't ride the fence anymore. You either have to get on one side or the other. I think some of my best years were between 40 and 50: I got my priorities straight and life is good to me now. It's only other people who say, "God, she's 50 years old!" as if I'm over the hill. I feel like I just started.