Guarding your heart and protecting your dignity are a little bit more important than clarifying the emotions of someone who's only texting you back three words. I've learned that from trying to figure out people who don't deserve to be figured out. When someone seems mysterious, we like to romanticize that he's "deep" or "complicated." But a lot of the time, things are exactly as they seem....

I still love writing in my journal and wearing sparkly dresses and looking at old chandeliers.

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.

I know that a Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania is about the most random place for a country singer to come from, but I had an awesome childhood.

I want a guy who takes charge, but lets me have my say once in a while. A good relationship is all about balance and chemistry.

If I had to give my younger self some advice, I think it would be that you have to laugh at things-things that scare you, things that intimidate you, things that hurt you, When you're humiliated, when you're rejected, you have to be able to take these bad experiences you have and turn them into a great dinner party joke.

There’s a general rule that I always go by, and it’s that you fall for who you fall for. Whatever small issue you get hung up on, whether it’s because they’re shorter than you, younger than you or they live far away - if you really are crazy about someone, none of that matters.