Look at someone like Ke$ha. I wouldn't say she's got the most rangy, incredible voice, but she's got a thing. She stands for something, and people are buying into that.

Listen to the Bee Gees and you can learn to be a great writer.

I was a pop-music junkie. My parents were into Frank Sinatra and Doris Day. They weren't too excited when I had Aretha or the Stones pumping.

When I look at myself, I'd like not to have hair on the top of the ceiling.

I looked a little pasty. But hey, at least I didn't wet myself!

The thing that's tricky is sometimes the best voices - just because someone hits the big notes and sounds amazing - it doesn't necessarily mean they make the greatest artists.

I have breakups that I can credit to every song. In my twenties, I picked people who would create that dysfunction and drama, so I could draw upon it.

Songwriters tell the truth.

Some of the best songs that artists perform year after year are ones they hated.

I felt like I got more comfortable on "Idol" when I just started being myself and not trying to be what I thought I had to be.

I don't go to record stores to look at my albums, but it's always a thrill to see them.

The way our minds work is that one positive thing and one negative thing does not equal each other.Instead, one negative thing can drastically bring down 2 or 3 positive things.

Work harder than anybody you've ever seen. That's what I believe.

You can't expect the entire world to come to New York to see you. You have to travel to them.

There are so many moments and works that influence us in what we do. Movies, music, TV and, most importantly, the profound everydayness of our lives.

I wouldn't consider myself a so-called 'celebrity.' Arrrgh, for the love of God!

History is a string full of knots, the best you can do is admire it, and maybe tie it up a bit more. History is a hammock for swinging and a game for playing.

So much of my life is not about work and that is usually mainly what I do tweet about. We live a very quiet life.

Journalism is caring where the fire-engines are going.

There is no PAST anybody can get to, to alter things or even to know what those things were but there is definitely a future, we are already in it.

The very idea that a child that is almost born into the world could still have their life taken from them is just anathema to me, and I can't conscious about a party that supports that.