I think I first realized I wanted to be in country music and be an artist when I was 10. And I started dragging my parents to festivals, and fairs, and karaoke contests, and I did that for about a year before I came to Nashville for the first time. I was 11 and I had this demo CD of me singing Dixie Chicks and Leanne Rimes songs.

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 think I first realized I wanted to be in country music and be an artist when I was 10. And I started dragging my parents to festivals, and fairs, and karaoke contests, and I did that for about a year before I came to Nashville for the first time. I was 11 and I had this demo CD of me singing Dixie Chicks and Leanne Rimes songs.

Music is my shining light, my favorite thing in the world. T get me to stop doing it for one second would be difficult!

When you're singing you can hear the echo of people in the audience singing every single word with you, and that was that big dream that I had for myself. It's happening.

For everything I do, I think about a 6-year-old girl and her mom that I saw at my concert last night. I think about what those two individuals would think if I were at a club last night. I never want to be arrested, and I never want to get a DUI, those are my moral values.

For me, when I picture the person I want to end up with, I don't think about what their career is, or what they look like. I picture the feeling I get when I'm with them.

If you cry over a guy, then your friends can't date him. It can't even be considered.

It feels kinda weird being back in a high school cause I haven't been in a high school for about a year. So um, it's kinda interesting coming back, and y'know seeing the lockers, with all the signs, the handmade signs, so being in high school again is a little bit strange but in a good way.

I wish all teenagers can filter through songs instead of turning to drugs and alcohol.

I am an over-achiever, and I want to be known for the good things in my life.

I would love to continue in music, with writing... but I am not the kind of person who will hang around if I start to become irrelevant. If that happens, I will bow down gracefully, raise my kids, and have a garden. And I am going to let my hair go gray when I am older. I don't need to be blonde when I'm 60!

In a relationship each person should support the other; they should lift each other up.

I get really restless when I haven't worked for a day and a half. I have a recurring dream that people are lined up next to my bed, waiting for autographs and taking pictures of me!

Love always ends differently and it always begins differently - especially with me.

I love it when people say things to me in public and want to meet me, because I want to meet them! Early on, my manager told me, 'If you want to sell 500,000 records, then go out there and meet 500,000 people.'

Factoring in millions of people when I'm writing a song is not a good idea. I don't ever do it.

I haven't had that one great love, which is good. I don't want that to be in the past - I want it to be in the future.

I'm not afraid to write my feelings in songs.

In this business you have to develop a thick skin, but I'm always going to feel everything. It's my nature.

Fans are my favorite thing in the world. I've never been the type of artist who has that line drawn between their friends and their fans. The line's always been really blurred for me. I'll hang out with them after the show. I'll hang out with them before the show. If I see them in the mall, I'll stand there and talk to them for 10 minutes.

All you need to do to be my friend is like me.

There are no rules when it comes to love.

I know my flaws before other people point them out to me.

I'm intimidated by the fear of being average.

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.

I believe when it comes to love, there's something intangible about who we are attracted to, and I don't think I have a pattern.

I have this really high priority on happiness and finding something to be happy about.

I approach love differently now that I know it's hard for it to work out.

I write songs that are like diary entries. I have to do it in order to feel sane.

I'm not the girl who always has a boyfriend. I'm the girl who rarely has a boyfriend.

'Love Story' I wrote on my bedroom floor in about 20 minutes.

'Love Story' is actually about a guy that I almost dated. But when I introduced him to my family and my friends, they all said they didn't like him. All of them!

'Mean' is a song I wrote about somebody who wrote things that were so mean so many times that it would ruin my day. Then it would ruin the next day. And it would level me so many times, I just felt like I was being hit in the face every time this person would take to their computer.

'The Story of Us' is about running into someone I had been in a relationship with at an awards show, and we were seated a few seats away from each other. I just wanted to say to him, 'Is this killing you? Because it's killing me.' But I didn't. Because I couldn't. Because we both had these silent shields up.

A development deal is where they're giving you recording time and money to record, but not promising that they'll put an album out.

A letdown is worth a few songs. A heartbreak is worth a few albums.

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.

A lot of the jewelry that I wear are fan gifts because they're so awesome and they give me great presents.

All of my favorite people - people I really trust - none of them were cool in their younger years.

All of my songs are autobiographical.

All of my walls are covered with framed pictures of my friends.

And if you're horrible to me I'm going to write a song about you and you are not going to like it. That's how I operate.

And, honestly, if somebody wants to criticize me for not being a trainwreck, that's fine with me!

Anything that encourages people to pick up an instrument and play, I'm fully behind.

Anything you put your mind to and add your imagination into can make your life a lot better and a lot more fun.

Anytime someone tells me that I can't do something, I want to do it more.

As I grow up, the lessons I learn in love and relationships and how we treat each other are hopefully maturing - hopefully.

As soon as I accomplish one goal, I replace it with another one. I try not to get too far ahead of myself. I just say to myself, 'All right, well, I'd like to headline a tour,' and then when I get there, we'll see what my next goal is.