Yeah... I was a singer as a kid. I had a lot of stage fright, and what's happened with "Idol," it has got me past so much of that.

Listen to the Bee Gees and you can learn to be a great writer.

I was a pop-music junkie. My parents were into Frank Sinatra and Doris Day. They weren't too excited when I had Aretha or the Stones pumping.

When I look at myself, I'd like not to have hair on the top of the ceiling.

I looked a little pasty. But hey, at least I didn't wet myself!

The thing that's tricky is sometimes the best voices - just because someone hits the big notes and sounds amazing - it doesn't necessarily mean they make the greatest artists.

I have breakups that I can credit to every song. In my twenties, I picked people who would create that dysfunction and drama, so I could draw upon it.

Songwriters tell the truth.

Some of the best songs that artists perform year after year are ones they hated.

I felt like I got more comfortable on "Idol" when I just started being myself and not trying to be what I thought I had to be.

I don't go to record stores to look at my albums, but it's always a thrill to see them.

Clarification is not to clarify things. It is to put one’s self in the clear (Sir Humphrey Appleby)

If an American was condemned to confine his activity to his own affairs, he would be robbed of one half of his existence.

Everything in food is science. The only subjective part is when you eat it.

A man I knew who lived upon a smile, And well it fed him; he look'd plump and fair, While rankest venom foam'd through every vein.

The Chinese have a long history of slaughtering each other without bothering their neighbors.

I did not become great by association of The Beatles! Beatles make Maharishi great? Pah! It is a waste of thought.

Alzheimer's ... it is a barren disease, as empty and lifeless as a desert. It is a thief of hearts and souls and memories.

One of the things I enjoy is the challenge of Mother Nature.

I never expect I would become a K-pop star.

With definite goals you release your own power, and things start happening.