I think people inspire me the most. If I meet a person who is incredibly complex, and all of a sudden, I start thinking in rhymes, that person could be a muse.
My friends tease me about the fact that if someone seems bad or shady or like they have a secret, I find them incredibly interesting.
I've always been really, really aware of my insecurities - really, really aware. I never developed that thick skin that keeps you from letting things get to you.
It's pretty intense writing about my own life, my own struggles.
I'm intimidated by the fear of being average.
I'm interested in Jackson Pollock's kind of art, where art is beautiful, but it's nothing, and yet it's incredible.
I think that as you grow up, as you get older, we can't get bitter, we can't get jaded.
A lot of people ask me, 'How did you have the courage to walk up to record labels when you were 12 or 13 and jump right into the music industry?' It's because I knew I could never feel the kind of rejection that I felt in middle school. Because in the music industry, if they're gonna say no to you, at least they're gonna be polite about it.
My mom and I have always been really close. She's always been the friend that was always there. There were times when, in middle school and junior high, I didn't have a lot of friends. But my mom was always my friend. Always.
I didn't want to just be another girl singer. I wanted there to be something that set me apart.
Don't ever call a guy first. The thing they want the most is whatever they can't have. It sounds really juvenile, but it works.
Seeing a live Kenny Chesney show, you know what you're going to get. You know it's going to be an all-day party.
I've made sure that in any situation and with any record label, I'm allowed to write my own music.
In a relationship each person should support the other; they should lift each other up.
As your career grows, the list of things that makes you happy should not become smaller, it should become bigger.
One thing I've tried to never do is make wish lists. I try to have a very steppingstone mentality about this whole thing, where as soon as you make one step you visualize the next step, not five steps ahead.
I think the tiniest little thing can change the course of your day, which can change the course of your year, which can change who you are.
I've never thought about songwriting as a weapon. I've only thought about it as a way to help me get through love and loss and sadness and loneliness and growing up.
I've written all my songs on every single one of my records, and that's what's been fun about looking back.
You have people come into your life shockingly and surprisingly. You have losses that you never thought you'd experience. You have rejection and you have learn how to deal with that and how to get up the next day and go on with it.