Quotes

[on boys] You need to establish yourself before you let someone else in - I'm still finding myself.

I'm petite but I was the biggest girl on my season. Everyone else weighed 100 pounds. Reporters would ask, "So what's it like being a big girl?" and I thought, "Big? What?" It was like "Wait, what am I doing wrong?" Luckily, I had a great mom and dad who helped me grow up feeling comfortable in my own skin. I have a curvy figure, which guys like. And performing isn't about looking the best or being the most beautiful. I do it because I love it. Look, nobody else has my butt. Nobody has my eyes. Nobody has my nose. It's all mine. And that's what makes me different from everyone.

I'm only 27, not 40 and still single! I enjoy being single, I love work and I think people are so passive with relationships and I'm not that person.

I'm an extremist, I'm either in a relationship or I'm not. I'm honest about it and I'll tell people, it's just there's nothing to tell. I have a very good life.

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

The rumors are not helping me on the dating front! I prefer the boys. I'm extremely flattered when I do get hit on by girls, and I think it's hot, but I'm not into it. I like boys.

[on taking criticism from the judges] I come from a very sarcastic and loving family at the same time, but I'm very thick-skinned. So it's really not going to affect me to an extent. I really feel for the people that it does.

[on fiancé Brandon Blackstock] I've never been truly loved like I am right now.

[on her album "Wrapped in Red"] A Christmas album is fun because you don't get labeled anything. So there's rock 'n' roll on there, there's R&B. there's country, there's pop stuff. I have a hard time being cheesy, but you can be cheesy with Christmas music, so I felt I could be vulnerable.

[on talent shows] They will last as long as people keep watching them. People don't realize that Frank Sinatra got into the business through a competition. I don't think it matters how you got there. It matters if you're good enough to hang around.

I'm usually barefoot. That's how I'm most comfortable. I like my feet on the ground. I like to jump around, I like to fly across the state.

Everyone gives you their two cents, but you have to follow your gut.

[on her audition for American Idol] And I was, you know, kind of showing off my personality a bit and ended up switching places with Randy somehow and he ended up auditioning for me, Paula and Simon. I thought that was really cool 'cause I was sitting next to Paula and they liked it, they all were like... I mean, I was so happy 'cause the British man didn't make me cry!

[2010] My morning began with finding out that I am all over billboards, TV ads and other media formats alongside a tobacco company who, unbeknownst to me, is sponsoring my Jakarta date on my current tour. I was not made aware of this and am in no way an advocate or an ambassador for youth smoking. I'm not even a smoker, nor have I ever been. I can't justify penalizing my fans for someone else's oversight. This is a lose-lose situation for me and I am not happy about it but the damage has been done and I refuse to cancel on my fans. I think the hardest part of situations like this is getting personally attacked for something I was completely unaware of and being used as some kind of political pawn.

I don't understand why we're still struggling with these basic, asinine issues [gay, straight, black, and white]. It bothers me. So I ended up writing this whole song about it and I had a dream that we were more.

We decided the cover of the album [All I Ever Wanted] and just in case you haven't seen it I'll post it! It's very colorful and they have definitely Photoshopped the crap out of me - but I don't care, haha! Whoever she is, she looks great, ha!

It's ridiculous how well that song ["Since U Been Gone"] was received by hard rockers, by indie people. I was walking around with a friend of mine and this hard-rock guy came up to me and was like, 'I look stupid, but I tell my friends I love this song.' People at concerts are like, 'That's my guilty pleasure. I don't mean to be mean, but I didn't want to like the American Idol girl.' But they love that song, and it kind of won them over.

All of my favorite records - Jagged Little Pill, any U2 record, Tragic Kingdom - I love how it's like a story from beginning to finish. Especially Jagged Little Pill. The last song on My December, "Irvine", it literally was the lowest point I've had in my life. I wrote it after my Irvine show on my last tour. I was just so burned-out. I was really struggling at getting somebody out of my life and finding people that really cared. The whole song is a prayer. I wrote it in the bathroom of the venue after the show. I had to cancel my meet-and-greet; it's the only meet-and-greet I've ever canceled. I couldn't smile. It was just a really, really bad night.

[on Breakaway's musical influences] I grew up with Aerosmith, and I love listening to Jimi Hendrix. I grew up with a lot of rock influences in my life, but as well as a lot of Aretha Franklin, a lot of soul, so I don't know. I don't wanna limit myself, so I'm gonna kind of do whatever I want and put it on the record.

Because my career went from zero to 100, there was no 'growing'. I learnt well under pressure, but, like, four years passed by and I hit rock bottom, Breakaway just exploded everywhere. Everyone was making a lot of money, so everyone was pushing the train. That's when it finally all caught up with me. I came down with 'walking pneumonia' for the second time in a year. My body was physically giving up. I took six months off and went home. I love working, but at the end of the day you've got to take care of yourself.

[urinating in the shower] I pee almost every time. The hot water hits your body ... but if I gotta go.