One of my goals from really early on was that if I was ever fortunate enough to be successful in music, I would want to stay the same person and the same songwriter.

I would read the Shel Silverstein poems, Dr. Seuss, and I noticed early on that poetry was something that just stuck in my head and I was replaying those rhymes and try to think of my own. In English, the only thing I wanted to do was poetry and all the other kids were like, "Oh, man. We have to write poems again?" and I would have a three-page long poem. I won a national poetry contest when I was in fourth grade for a poem called "Monster In My Closet.

I know what it's like to pine away for that summer romance you just can't get back.

She's not a saint, and she's not what you think She's an actress, whoa She's better known for the things that she does on the mattress

Now stand in the corner, and think about what you've done!

It’s okay to wonder how you could try so hard and still get stomped all over. Just don’t let them change you.

I like the way the stories of my relationships sound to music more than the way they look in print, in gossip columns or in me talking about them in interviews. I think it's a better way of telling the stories.