When I was first learning songs I'd have a favorite song and I'd take the chords and twist them around. I'd learn the chords and then play them backward. That was my first experimenting with writing a song.

Every song you're trying to find something that going to connect in different ways but for me the songs that I'm really drawn to are inspirational songs that lift you and that everybody can relate to no matter where you're from.

Had I not come out with an inspirational CD you perhaps would have never known that I feel like I feel that all songs all the music I've ever done is a gift from God.

I don't actually like explaining the meanings of my songs because I think people can take away more from it if they use their imagination.

But in my imagination this whole thing developed and I started mixing up old folk songs with the Beatles beat and taking them down to Greenwich Village and playing them for the people there.

I love Sell Out I think it's great. I love the jingles. The whole thing as an album is a wonderful piece of work. The cover. Everything about it. It's got humor great songs irony.

It's part of the calling to at least do a few songs in the show that give people some hope. There's so much hurt in this world and... music is such a great healing balm and a great way to forget your troubles.

I hope to bring people to God with my songs.

I doubt I'll be singing forever because at some point people aren't going to want to hear my music and I hope that I'll still get the opportunity to write songs.

Blues are the songs of despair but gospel songs are the songs of hope.

David Lee Roth had the idea that if you covered a successful song you were half way home. C'mon - Van Halen doing 'Dancing in the Streets'? It was stupid. I started feeling like I would rather bomb playing my own songs than be successful playing someone else's music.

The only instrument I can play is piano. Whenever I make songs at home I play the piano and make them on the piano.

Social topics may hit too close to home for people but then again if you pull a heartstring then that's what country music is. It's not just songs about getting drunk and leaving your girl.

When I think about the songs I might record I ask myself 'Can I picture anybody I know back home sitting in their truck cranking this up?'

You can't fake this music. You might be a great singer or a great musician but in the need that's got nothing to do with it. It's how you connect to the songs and to the history behind them.

Pretty much at all times music motivates me. How can I say this without sounding in any way proud of myself? Obviously I've always written songs that are critical of our government and talk about our times. Hopefully you attempt to be timeless while doing it.

Being in a rock band is about touring. It's about writing songs and it's about making records but it's also about taking a wonderful smile onto that stage and making the people feel good about themselves.

Every year we celebrate the holy season of Advent O God. Every year we pray those beautiful prayers of longing and waiting and sing those lovely songs of hope and promise.

I've been doing musical theater since I was a kid. And look for a CD from me in the future. I want to write all the songs!

I feel like I write songs for the future or something. Not in an arrogant way but I feel like maybe my songs were like before their time or something.

We all know how funny Morrissey is. Actually you know what? I say that sarcastically. His songs are some of the funniest songs I've ever heard in my life. I mean really. I mean not that the 'Girlfriend in a Coma' is like really funny.

The funny thing is the songs that people think are about me probably aren't. And the songs that are probably are the ones they wouldn't think... so that's where it kind of is funny.

I remember listening to the radio as a kid and finding that the songs always made me feel more peaceful. Funny but the more hurtin' the music was the better it made me feel. I think of that now when I write my songs. I may not be feelin' the blues myself but I'm writing them for other people who have a hard life.

I wanted to be that quirky girl who writes funny songs that still have meaning.