I feel like my dating life has become a national pastime, and Im not comfortable providing that entertainment anymore.

I realized that I have very long arms so I can take the perfect arm-length picture with fans

I think I first realized I wanted to be in country music and be an artist when I was 10. And I started dragging my parents to festivals, and fairs, and karaoke contests, and I did that for about a year before I came to Nashville for the first time. I was 11 and I had this demo CD of me singing Dixie Chicks and Leanne Rimes songs.

I like things you can touch and things you can keep, because every bit of communication we have is ephemeral in nature. You can just delete an e-mail and it's like it was never there.

I stopped reading articles about myself. Even if it's not bad, I think actively caring about people's daily perception of you makes you second-guess everything. I am very happily not paranoid right now.

Two years gives you enough time to grow and to change, and to, you know, change your priorities. Change where you live, change your hair, change what you believe in, change who you hang out with, what’s influencing you, what’s inspiring you. And in the process of all of those changes in the last two years, my music changed.

I think you really have to tap into your sense of humor in order to survive.