By keeping her heart protected, she'll never ever feel rejected.

I'm the perfect amount of guarded. I don't reveal too much, and I never reveal who the songs are about. They are real life. People get that. I date a lot of musicians and they do the same thing. People that work with me - who I write about too - they get it. It's my creative outlet, my therapy.

This is my life; these are my fingerprints; I'm unique; this is what I want to do. You worry about your own front porch and what's happening in your own world.

I may not be Einstein but I know dumb plus dumb equals you.

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.'

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

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."