I grew up in a home filled with music and had an early appreciation of jazz since my dad was a jazz musician. Beginning at around age three I started singing with his band and jazz music has continued to be one of my three passions along with acting and writing. I like to say jazz music is my musical equivalent of comfort food. It's always where I go back to when I want to feel grounded.

I wish I had been more prepared, both for success and for failure, when I was younger.

I didn't have parents who were, you know, racing to get a reality television show, you know? Or looking to benefit in some way from their daughter's fame.

I've done kissing scenes with people who have been loaded. I'd think, 'Do you actually have to drink that Jack Daniels to kiss me?'

I think when people hear about a celebrity writing a book of any kind, the assumption is that it was dictated to a ghostwriter.

When you say you're 40, you can't call yourself an ingenue any more.

I think we do live in a very specialized society, where once you think about somebody as one thing, it's hard to change that. But I do a lot of things. I act, I write, I sing.