When I was 13, I wasn't the coolest kid in my class, and that inner dork is a wonderful thing to have.

I've been watching a lot of Joni Mitchell YouTube clips and I can't believe her transformation from this folk singer in Canada.

For me, writing is 75 percent procrastinating and 25 percent actually sitting down and working.

I'll write and make chords with my voice sometimes if I don't have an instrument even though it takes a million times longer.

I'm always interested in hearing how other people read and react to my songs. I hadn't thought of it in just that way. One of the things I love about doing things that are creative is that I feel like it's my right as an artist not to be affected by the reactions of those people that are going to hear my songs. But I also feel like it's the right of the people hearing them to have their own interpretations of what these songs mean. Sometimes people will see things that I don't see.

I love telling stories. I think of myself as a storyteller, and I don't feel bound by being just a singer or an actress. First, I'm a storyteller, and history is stories - the most compelling stories. There is a lot you can find out about yourself through knowing about history. I have always been attracted to things that are old. I have just always found such things interesting and compelling.

That people equate being girlie with being nonthreatening … I mean, I can't think of a more blatant example of playing into exactly the thing that we're trying to fight against. I can't be girlie? I think the fact that people are associating being girlie with weakness, that needs to be examined. I don't think that it undermines my power at all.