In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.

Hearing my songs in public freaks me out a bit. There was one restaurant I really liked in L.A. but I had to stop going there when they started playing my music. It felt kinda awkward.

I think there are unseen powers who don't want pop music to be anything other than glorified Madonnas.

I can sing very comfortably from my vantage point because a lot of the music was about a loss of innocence there's innocence contained in you but there's also innocence in the process of being lost.

It's true there's a lot of melancholy in my music. I don't know why I'm not a melancholy person. I've always been drawn to it. Ever since I was a kid if I had an album I would play the ballads on repeat.

What I was going for in the first two albums I didn't necessarily achieve. Because I was young and because it was my first time out. And the second album was such a 'quickie' sort of 'Let's just get it over with!' But the kind of music I make there's a lot of subtlety in it. And I think it takes a couple of listens to actually really get it.

My music appeals in America. There is less of the purist criticism I get here. And to be a hit in the U.S... what singer doesn't have that dream?

Nobody was listening when I learned how to play music. But there's something about being on stage talking to the audience looking at them and smiling that's always been difficult for me. I'm a lot more comfortable now but there are still moments of awkwardness.

I'm really an inner spirit that only makes itself known through the music. A lot of people think I'm an introvert or quiet and moody. I've even heard some people say that there's a certain mystery or darkness about me. I'm not that way. I'm just really into what I do.

There was this mountain village in Russia where my music was getting in on some German radio station. I remember this because music used to get up to Saskatchewan from Texas. Late at night after the local station closed down.

I've never believed that pop music is escapist trash. There's always a darkness in it even amidst great pop music.

The way I feel about music is that there is no right and wrong. Only true and false.

Hopefully people can see my music is tethered to my brain.

Choreography is mentally draining but there's a pleasure in getting into the studio with the dancers and the music.

Pop is a little bit theatrical. That's the whole vibe. That's the point - is that it's great music great melodies great hooks. But on top of it it's a presentation. There's a showmanship about it. And that's why I wanted to be a pop star.

I think the difficult thing is the transition between TV competition series and going into the actual music industry. There still seems to be a slight disconnect there.

Music's been around a long time and there's going to be music long after Ray Charles is dead. I just want to make my mark leave something musically good behind. If it's a big record that's the frosting on the cake but music's the main meal.

There's an album by Antonio Carlos Jobim - the album with 'The Girl From Ipanema.' That's the most seductive music ever.

A lot of the music that you listen to now is because of the things that the Meters did the Neville Brothers did and they're there the guys who invented those beats that the guys sample today. Such an enormous opportunity.

The Christian community latched onto a lot of my music because there were a lot of things about my struggle they related to. But I didn't really want to come out and be identified as a Christian because I didn't want to be a hypocrite because my life wasn't right.

But however measurable there is much more life in music than mathematics or logic ever dreamed of.

There are certain pieces of music that are always attached to certain books.

Pop stardom is not very compelling. I'm much more interested in a relationship between performer and audience that is of equals. I came up through folk music and there's no pomp and circumstance to the performance. There's no like 'I'll be the rock star you be the adulating fan.'

Most recently we've been working in concert situations rather than clubs. because there aren't too many rooms there like Ronnie Scott's that are pure music rooms where people come specifically to listen to music.