I'm learning a lot about myself being alone, and doing what I'm doing.

Actually, no, because awards don't spark sales as much as you'd think.

I listened to my record and hear lots of influences. And it's very rich... it's got a wide spectrum.

I seem to have secured some place in world of music and that's kind of all that really matters to me.

I'm not writing just about melancholy stuff anymore, I made a point to cover a wide range of emotions.

The flattery is nice, but awards don't add up to writing quality songs.

To be honest, I'm not as goal oriented and ambitious as I once was.

And I think it's a real challenge to be up there sometimes with only a keyboard if they don't have a grand piano... and to try to win people over that way. It's really hard.

Generally my feeling is that I think women are just in a universal way coming out, coming to their own more. And they have more opportunity, and basically we're equal.

I can't say I want to earn a particular award or sell a certain number of records, because even if I do that, the satisfaction only lasts five minutes.

I think it's important to really press on with the song writing and just go with it. There's no code, there's no craft... it's just let yourself shine through your music. If it's meant to be loved and heard, it'll happen.

I've built a solid career there, but America's ten times the size. Now that we're onto the third record, I feel like the stars have aligned and American audiences are embracing my music even more.

I've found that in now having experienced what it's like to make records and just through growing up in general that you should be expressive about what's affecting you instead of trying to sing about a subject just for the sake of other people getting something from it.

If certain songs become popular enough to the point where I'll be playing them the rest of my life, I don't want them all to dwell on the same down moment that I'll have to keep reliving.

If I'm writing strictly for others, how does that show what I'm experiencing or thinking? I just got to a point where I realized I could be as personal as I wanted to be and people could relate to those situations if they so choose.

Making sleep happen is a must - anytime, anywhere, from a plane to a train to an automobile. Ideally, I like to get eight to ten hours a night, though I'll take it broken up in two segments if I have to.

Maybe in past years, perhaps women didn't feel quite as comfortable with revealing themselves, and their skills and their crafts... and now we are, so we're out there, just like the guys.

Of course, I would be depressed sometimes, and my Mom would be worried about me because I would just sleep to escape. Cause I was so scared of being a musician or artist, or whatever you want to call it.

Once I got a record contract, and I took my songs which weren't quite finished, or maybe they were a good idea, maybe they weren't. I took them into the studio and developed them. They came to life and they evolved... and they're great.

Well, I actually first got into music as a small child, and as I became a teen, I sought out making money from music, weather that was singing lounge gigs, backup in studios, or weddings.