My father identified as a black man. No one asked him because he was clearly black. But people always ask me. If we were together, people would look at us in a really strange way. It sucked. As a little girl I had blond hair and they'd look at me, look at him, and be disgusted.

After every storm, if you look hard enough, a rainbow appears.

I'd rather be onstage with a pig - a duet with Jennifer Lopez and me just ain't going to happen.

Nothing that's ever happened has taken away the optimist in me. It's always, "Whatever-let's go to Disneyland." Yes, I have my bleak, tortured-artist moments, but you have to hold on to what's positive.

If critics have problems with my personal life, it's their problem. Anybody with half a brain would realize that it's the charts that count.

I look around and see the things I have, and I remember not having them. That is one thing that keeps me grounded. I'm definitely the same person I was. . . . I never lose me, I never lose the real person.

I think that for me personally, a lot of my choices have been to do with my own issues of not feeling safe as a child and feeling a sense of stability.