Quotes

[on coming second to Taylor Hicks on American Idol (2002)] I don't need sad faces or anyone to feel bad for me. I have got a record deal, pretty much. It wasn't about winning the title, I just wanted to give the best performance I could.

When I made it onto American Idol (2002), I knew that food--my eating disorder--was the one thing really holding me back. I was binging my whole life away for days at a time. So when I got on the show, I said, "You know what? I can do well in this competition. Let me give myself a chance and just get a hold of this thing" . . . That's why I say "American Idol" saved my life, because if I hadn't auditioned I don't think I would have gotten a handle on food.

People made a big deal out of [my album cover being racy]. They said, "She's a slut, blah blah blah". But I'm really not showing that much skin. It's all suggested.

I want to have, like, 15 babies. I've always wanted to be pregnant. One year for Halloween, I decided to be pregnant, so I got this nun costume, and I put a big belly under it. I showed my parents and said I want to go to school as a pregnant nun. My dad sat me down and said, "Katharine, you can't!".

We had our first table read last week, and [producer] Adam Sandler was sitting right across from me making faces, I was nervous, [but] I love Adam. I've always been a big fan of his movies and that kind of comedy. I met Adam and was like, "This is so crazy!".

I was prematurely developed, as a freshman, I looked like a junior; I had boobs. Some of the older kids saw me in the yearbook and said I was cute. I came from an all-girl school. I was determined to get a boyfriend!

When I turned 21, I thought it was a good age to explore. You're no longer a teenager, so it's okay [to date older guys]. I gravitated toward them, and I love them. They're just wiser, and they're less about themselves and more about you.

I love being a role model. It's still a man's world in society. Girls should keep working on themselves.

[on Marilyn Monroe] She got our attention initially, of course, because she was so effortlessly beautiful. We all have a fascination with beautiful women and the struggles they go through in a man's world.

Hillary [Hillary Clinton] is such an advocate for women and stuff like that.

[Regarding problems getting her acting career started] Yeah, my thinking was, "I'm going to go on [American Idol (2002)] ­because that will give me exposure. I'll be the slightly chubby pretty girl they give a makeover to. I don't care if I win. I probably won't".

For me, with men, I will fixate on something. I'll say, "I'm obsessed with your chin". I'll kiss his chin and munch on it, and I think that makes people feel good.

I'm kind of obsessed with the Kardashians.

All I know is that when the show [Smash (2012)] started and people were so excited about the pilot, I was excited to finally be a part of something that could showcase me.

On [American Idol (2002)], I was very strategic with my look. I specifically wore very little makeup, did very little with my hair. I wore beat-up jeans and a simple jacket and I covered my body up because I knew that viewers like seeing transformation. As a viewer myself, it was one of those things I looked forward to. It's like when people watch Dancing with the Stars (2005): They love to see the stars lose weight and start to feel confident. So I wanted to create that story--actually to push the story that I had no idea about fashion--which was not actually true.

[I want to be] the Barbra Streisand of this generation. I want to be someone who is remembered as being great at all things.

[Regarding school] If I had spent all that time actually studying and really learning it versus the time I spent planning to cheat, I probably would have done better.

[February 2007] [admitting that she likes to smoke a cigarette once in a blue moon] It just makes you feel sexy... is that bad?

[February 2007] [on being a self-proclaimed flirt] That's just so fun to go to a party and flirt.