I'm actually not a big fan of the word hope. I think it's a depressing word. I don't want to hope - I want to know. Like I don't hope there's a God, I know there's a God.

Everyone says I'm like the girl next door... Y'all must have really weird neighbors!

Life's too short to be a pushover.

Two must-haves for me are a great book and my iPod.

I'm from a small town where everybody always has something to say - you shouldn't sing secular music, you shouldn't do this or do that. A ton of "shouldn'ts."

I'm waiting for the floor to drop out from under me.

The hardest thing about being in this business is just being able to be yourself. People act like there's this one set of rules to follow to be a pop star and I think, 'Well, you say I'm a pop star, so maybe that's not true.'