I've always just wished that maybe someday people would care about the words that I wrote.

There’s something to be said for being young and needing someone so badly that you jump in headfirst without looking.

I get so excited when a song I wrote that's very personal to me goes No. 1 and I look down and see people singing the words back to me.

My favorite place in the whole world is Nashville. Because it's my home, it's Music City. It's like, everybody there is so artistic and so creative, and nice! Everybody's really friendly.

When you’re young you just run, but you come back to what you need.

I've come to a wonderful realization that is fascinating: I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to love. No one does!

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.