Praise a stranger with a few nice words and he becomes a stranger that calls you a friend.

If we had to choose one American Idol to go out to dinner with, it would be Fantasia. There are no airs and graces about her. ... I like her.

I was slightly cynical of the American mentality before I came over here, but now I preach it. Here, no one's going to tear you down if you buy yourself a $300,000 car. They're likely to say: "Well, you probably worked hard for it. Good luck to you."

There's an expression in life: "You can only make one first impression." And that first impression has to be spectacular. So, I wait, and let people see it when it's ready to go. It's not a set rule, but I think it's the better way of working. People will agree with you because of your track record, but you want people to like it because it's good, not because you found it.

They understand what their market is and who they should be selling records to, and most importantly, they know the kind of artist that they want to be, but they have to do it themselves. You don't want a 13-year-old singing some awful song from a musical.

I like to know why a video has suddenly gone viral, why a song has broken, why a TV show is suddenly rating out of pattern... I'm pretty good at understanding why things are becoming popular.

The only magazines I read are car magazines.