But I was going to be a teacher my entire life, so I wasn't counting on money to much.

I know that I've got big ears and a big forehead and that my hair sticks up, but I'm happy with myself. I'm not necessarily trying to win a beauty pageant here.

I decided to study special education and fell in love with working with individuals with autism. That's what I planned to do with my life.

The message I'll share...is that inclusion is extremely important for kids with and without disabilities.

A song can be more than words and music ... when sung with soul a song carries you to another world, to a place where no matter how much pain you feel, you are never alone.

I like to talk. I'm a terrible dancer. I love my hometown. I have freckles and oversized ears. I'm a geeks. I have tried not to hide who I am or what matters to me.

Well, fortunately we found out that the runner-up our particular year was going to get a record contract also. So it was kind of a - it was bitter sweet but it was an opportunity.

It doesn't really matter to me how I make a difference, I just wanna make sure that I do.

I know this is going to sound cheesy and like I'm trying to be Miss America, but the most important responsibility a celebrity has is to set an example and be a role model.

And I think that when I finally decided to let go and let God and allow that to happen, I became a lot more successful than I could have done if I had planned it all myself.

I went to school for special education. I always assumed when I had the opportunity I would love to try and help kids with disabilities.

What hurts so bad about youth isn't the actual butt whippings the world delivers. It's the stupid hopes playacting like certainties.

Don’t surrender your life to a Face, a Farce, a Fence or a Force. Don’t be a Slave, be Brave.

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.

The virtue of dress rehearsals is that they are a free show for a select group of artists and friends of the author, and where for one unique evening the audience is almost expurgated of idiots.

Mimicking the herd invites regression to the mean.

Pretension is nothing; power is everything.

I see the notion of talent as quite irrelevant. I see instead perseverance, application, industry, assiduity, will, will, will, desire, desire, desire.

Prosperity inebriates men, so that they take delights in their own merits.

My mum was never strict. I was allowed to go out to clubs underage, watch TV, listen to whatever music I wanted to, and that made me not rebel. I have never touched a drug in my life.

A man who keeps company with glaciers comes to feel tolerably insignificant by and by.