I have a lot of different influences. Everything from Maroon 5, Gwen Stefani, The Clash, Kanye West - just a lot of different artists.

I was home-schooled, was always very close with my mom and was very straight-laced and square. I was never the rebellious one, and I never threw hissy fits.

I was listening to a lot of Norwegian black metal and death metal. There's a great history to Norwegian black metal. That music is very dark and violent, but it's also beautiful.

I'm learning with the older that I get that some feelings are just universal and that I'm not the only one who hates their hair or their life at times.

It's really hard to see yourself and to recognize that you are a human being like everybody else. You just think everybody's judging you.

Sometimes I laugh with my parents, and sometimes I yell at them, and both are therapeutic.

For me, the dumbest rule is that you can't chew gum in school. For some reason, chewing gum for me gets my brain going.

I usually get my lyrics when I let my mind wander, when you're not really awake, but not yet fully asleep. I keep an open notebook by my bed and then just write whatever comes to me.

I want more awareness of humanity in this world.

I'm so used to swimming with the piranhas. And they're really not that bad.

It's very scary to allow the world to see you.

If another soul took over your beloved’s body, would you still feel the same way about him or her?

I survive on moments of make-believe happiness.

Write to be understood, speak to be heard, read to grow.

Service, it seems, is the only antidote to existential frustration.

But when you cared about someone, you made sacrifices. You put their happiness first.

Depending on what I'm working on, I come to the writing desk with entirely different mindsets. When I change form one to the other, it's as if another writer is on the scene.

I didn't really even think of recording under my own name for a long time. I thought, 'I've got the rest of my life to do that.'

A thousand secrets are hidden in simply sitting still.

I'm always happy when I'm cleaning, and besides, I had just found out that I was going to have a baby.

I knew your father before you did, and I don't think he'd be too proud of what you're doing right now.