Quotes

"Dolly is a legend. Jessica is so beautiful. I take it as a big compliment when people put me beside them." About being compared to Dolly Parton & Jessica Simpson on the Idol red carpet.

"This is the first time I became famous. I'm gonna be on shows like TRL and VH1!" On her success after making it to the top 6 in the show.

I've seen my whole family struggle, with money, with relationships, with alcohol, and I thought there must be a better way. As you mature, you realize you don't choose your parents. It's not your fault what they do and you should not be ashamed.

I've always been comfortable in front of people. I've always been the joker, the class clown. Music and laughter is how I dealt with everything. I'd rather laugh about it than cry about it.

Of all the things I have been through in my life, the hardest thing I've ever gone through is the loss of my grandmother. She was always there for me, and then she was gone.

We are in a world where people want to find out the worst possible things about someone. It's never anything good. With the 5th Grader show, no one even recognized that I won $50,000 for my charity. It was never attention on anything good I did. Hell, I don't know the capital of Hungary. I don't know many people that do. I can't control what people say about me. I'm not stupid. If was stupid, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now.

I remember my mother and I were in the kitchen and I said, 'I wish God would take me away, I'd much rather be dead than live here with you.' She took a knife out, set it on the counter and said, 'Here, do it then.' I was in fourth grade. Of course I never would have acted upon it, but it's done a lot of emotional scarring.

Happiness has been about surrounding myself with positive people who love me, inspire me and lift me up. If I take in positive energy, then that's what I put back out into the universe.