Singing is a way of releasing an emotion that you sometimes can't portray when you're acting. And music moves your soul so music is the source of the most intense emotions you can feel.

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.

Rock n' Roll came from the slaves singing gospel in the fields. Their lives were hell and they used music to lift out of it to take them away. That's what rock n' roll should do - take you to a better place.

Singing is a way of releasing an emotion that you sometimes can't portray when you're acting. And music moves your soul so music is the source of the most intense emotions you can feel. When you hear a song and you're acting it's incredible. But when you're singing a song and you're acting it's even more incredible.

For me singing sad songs often has a way of healing a situation. It gets the hurt out in the open into the light out of the darkness.

I want to be around for a long time singing and making albums and movies.

If I did any movies I'd have to take a break from singing because I'd want it to be really good.

I didn't know that I could do a talk show. I didn't know that we could bring variety to daytime. I didn't know that people wanted to see singing and dancing and comedy in the morning.

I wake up every morning singing 'The Star-Spangled Banner.'

My heart is singing for joy this morning! A miracle has happened! The light of understanding has shone upon my little pupil's mind and behold all things are changed!

I grew up in a really small town with not a lot of money and I liked singing but it was just something that was a hobby.

I like to sing ballads the way Eddie Fisher does and the way Perry Como does. But the way I'm singing now is what makes the money.

I probably wouldn't be singing if not for Michael Jackson. When I started singing I didn't like my tone until my mom put me on to Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder so listening to the way they used their instrument helped me get more comfortable with my own.

My mom's a concert pianist so she started teaching me when I was around seven. When I was eight I started writing my own songs and kinda started putting piano and singing together. But I'm trained classically which is a big influence on me I think.

I grew up with the classics. My mom and I would sit and watch 'Singin' in the Rain' and 'White Christmas' - those kind of movies.

We didn't have movies in this little mining town. When I was 12 my mom took me to New York and I saw Bye Bye Birdie with people singing and dancing and that was it.

I didn't understand that I could sing until I was like 11 or 12. My mom heard me singing around the house and she said What are you doing? You really can sing! So then I started going to school and singing to the girls.

Writing and singing does give me some kind of release from the demons of my past it is a therapy of sorts but to be honest my marriage played a more important role in the acceptance of myself than performance has ever done.

I listen to the people. That was a big reason for my life maybe the main reason I'm singing because I love it when people say to me 'Thank you.' I thank them. It's a marriage.

You don't have to be singing about love all the time in order to give love to the people. You don't have to keep flashing those words all the time.

The fact is that the learning process goes on and so long as the voices are not stilled and the singers go on singing some of it gets through.

I hope that what it comes down to at the end of the day is that people believe that I believe what I'm singing. It comes down to being believable. You don't have to be likeable generally though I think I am.

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.

Oh stuff the critics. I don't care. Too many people are snooty about classical. Look I wasn't brought up in a home where we listened to classical music. It was a singing teacher that thought it would be best for my voice. Then I moved into crossover. And if that makes the music accessible to more people then great.