“The hardest thing about being in this business is just being able to be yourself. People act like there’s this one set of rules to follow to be a pop star and I think, ‘Well, you say I’m a pop star, so maybe that’s not true.’”

This is my life; these are my fingerprints; I’m unique; this is what I want to do. You worry about your own front porch and what’s happening in your own world.

I’ve loved my 20s, but I would never repeat them.

I’m waiting for the floor to drop out from under me.

Everyone says I’m like the girl next door. Y’all must have really weird neighbors!

I don’t obsess about my weight, which is probably one of the reasons why other people have such a problem with it.

I would not be a good mother. I mean, I love being an aunt to my niece and nephew. And I used to want to, like, adopt 10 kids – because I had friends who were adopted, and I thought that was the coolest thing, to be chosen. But again, my job is too selfish.

I have the world’s worst pregnancies.

Never take advice from someone you wouldn’t trade places with.

People keep asking me if I am having more fun, being blonde, but I always have fun! Whether I’m blonde, redhead, or brunette! I always have fun.

I’m proud of everything I achieved with ‘Idol,’ and away from ‘Idol’ also. It’s just such a different show now to what it was when I was on it. I didn’t even know it was a TV show until the third audition.

Honestly, I just think we all have special gifts, everyone. You know, obviously, some are more noticeable than others and that’s why there’s the limelight. Everybody’s in it.

I’ve just never cared what people think. It’s more if I’m happy and I’m confident and feeling good, that’s always been my thing.

I love to sing, and I love to talk to people at meet-and-greets.

I’m very friendly or whatever, but I would hardly say that I’m that cookie-cutter. I don’t live in L.A. or New York. I live in Texas, and I go to hole-in-the-wall bars, so there’s no paparazzi there.

I love my body. I’m very much OK with it. I don’t think artists are ever the ones who have the problem with their weight, it is other people.

I sound like such a tool, but becoming a mother has made me next-level confident. I’ve never felt more empowered.

You want to have a future where you’re expecting things to be better, not one where you’re expecting things to be worse.

Discipline has within it the potential for creating future miracles.

We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles.

You are not your circumstances. You are your possibilities. If you know that, you can do anything.

If you never want to be criticized, for goodness sake don’t do anything new.

We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.

It’s very hard to fail completely, if you aim high enough.

Well done is better than well said.