My career always involved being the person in charge of what I was portraying to people. "I never wanted to be an image of something I didn't believe in, an image that somebody else had put together. The idea of that just really scared me, more than the idea of failing.

In fairy tales the bad guy is very easy to spot. The bad guy is always wearing a black cape so you always know who he is.

For me, writing a song, I sit down and the process doesn't really involve me thinking about the demo-graphic of people I'm trying to hit or who I want to be able to relate to the song or what genre of music it falls under.

I don't want people to think of me as sexy.

And if you're horrible to me I'm going to write a song about you and you are not going to like it. That's how I operate.

I keep one eye on the path I didn't choose every day.

When I listen to a song, I don't say, 'Oh my gosh, that vocal line she sang was the best thing I ever heard.' I'm thinking, 'That lyric just moves me. That lyric just said what I feel better than I could say it myself.'