Really connecting with someone and maybe opening their mind a little bit, is such a cool thing to be able to do through music.

Obviously I’ve always loved singing and performing, but I fell in love with songwriting and then I enjoyed doing that for other people and getting coached. But then I kind of stumbled into the right group of people that really started to create some unique music for me and what I wanted to say, so then it made me want to be an artist.

I wrote my first song when I was nine, and it was called ‘Notice Me’. My Mom still has the piece of paper around somewhere, but I can’t even imagine how terrible it is.

When I was nine, I was singing western swing: Roy Rogers and Patsy Cline. It got me noticed because no one my age was doing it, but it made me feel inferior because none of my friends could relate to it.

I needed to really pursue music and learn what I needed to learn on my own by getting in and doing it, not by reading a book about it.

I burned my own damn finger pokin’ someone else’s fire.

I write my songs and just play them, so there are not a whole lot of fireworks. As long as the music comes first, it’s OK to have some fireworks. But not the other way around.

I’m a really huge John Prine fan; I love his clever conversationalist songs.

Lee Ann Womack is from near where I grew up in East Texas, so I’ve always looked up to her. I sang a lot of Dolly Parton as a kid and a lot of traditional western swing, like Patsy Cline and Roy Rogers.

I used to love, and I still do, Lee Ann Womack. And Alison Krauss. I mean, how many Grammys does she have? She’s just remained solid and true and great, and I respect that.

My fans are pretty spot-on with their gifts. This girl that was super into baking had made this entire batch of cookies – there were one with a dandelion on it, one with a trailer, and some had my face.

Undeniably, I’m a country singer; I’m a country songwriter. But I feel like I make country music for people who like country music and for people who don’t.

My parents aren’t crazy conservative. They’re actually pretty open-minded. But my grandparents are, and where I’m from, East Texas, is the Bible Belt.

You can’t beat Freddie Mercury. He was a mad man in the best sense possible.

I like when people have Western style, but it’s throwback Seventies-ish. I like pearlsnap shirts and a bow-tie like the KFC man.

I love words. They’re fun. I don’t think any word can just be filler. There’s no room for it. It’s like a puzzle. Every song can be written a million times. How can you say it differently?

I’m thrilled that country music fans like my stuff, but so do a lot of people outside of country music, people who just love music. My goal is more to reach music lovers than to appeal to a genre. I love country music, and I’m proud to represent it, but I don’t obsess over it as a category.

I feel like, big city or small town, you can relate to following your parents’ footsteps or putting your own dreams on the back burner or vices that we get caught up in – that whole cycle. That’s not just a small-town thing. That’s a life thing.

Loretta Lynn was one of those ladies a long time ago that opened a lot of doors and paved the way for a lot of ballsy singer-songwriters who weren’t just cute.

When I started out, I wanted to be the kind of artist who could play the CMA Music Festival and then turn around and play Bonnaroo, and I’ve managed to do both.

Look at Loretta Lynn. Look at Jeannie C. Rily singing ‘Harper Valley PTA’ and Tammy Wynette singing about divorce. They were ahead of their times in a lot of ways.

I burned my own damn finger pokin’ someone else’s fire.

Really connecting with someone and maybe opening their mind a little bit, is such a cool thing to be able to do through music.

I don’t wanna play your game, boy. Cleaning up the messes that you make.

Different people have different ways of doing things. For me, becoming a songwriter first and falling in love with the Nashville songwriting community and the process of songs and getting better and putting more in what I wanted to say, was absolutely vital in me even wanting to be an artist.

Being grown up kinda sucks and I’m really just missing the simple times.

We knew what was under the surface and lived like it wouldn’t hurt us. ??? ?? ???? ??.

Obviously, I don’t live and die by it, everything my horoscope says. But I feel like there’s definitely something to it.

It’s weird, because the ideas in my songs aren’t controversial to me. I feel like I should be able to sing about anything.

Get in loser, we’re having a nervous breakdown.

When you see me out I hope the taste in your mouth is still sweet as I wish it could be, believe me.

All I have in this world is a place that’s mine, a few good friends and a few good lines, a couple pairs of shoes that I love that shine and I walk in peace.

A lot of times, I’m singing things that are observational and am definitely including myself.

A lot of what gets on the radio isn’t saying anything other than somebody wants to be famous and will do whatever they’re told to get it.

In the beginning, I wrote OK songs, but they didn’t have a unique perspective.

Forced idleness evolves into beauty.

Guess I’m hanging’ by myself but I don’t mind.

I used to write poems more when I was younger, but I haven’t in a long time. I just write ideas and paragraphs and go from there.

Legs longer than my marriage.

I know not every song has to be a powerful message.

I know what I want and it gets in my way. I know I’m not easy.

It’s hard to remember a time when I wasn’t writing.

If I’m not writing about myself, then I sit down with people I really dig writing with and throw ’em out and see if something sticks. Their brain plus mine hopefully will make something interesting and cool and it will just snowball and we’ll have a unique song by the end of it.

I drink to feel I smoke to breathe Just look what love has done to me.

Too many people focus on writing what they think they should write, what should be in a song, what radio would want.

Certain kinds of people will always have an issue with my music. But that’s fine; it’s OK. I don’t want to be the McDonald’s of music.

Say what you think, Love who you love.

If I’m gonna be stuck inside might as well keep it dreamy.

Newsflash: karma’s an even bigger bitch than me.

The more country that my music gets, the less it fits into the country world today. It’s almost like there needs to be two genres, modern country and country?

I wear my tears on my sleeves.

I don’t push buttons to push buttons. Throwing the rebel card out there is really cheap.

I think a great song appeals to older and younger people and it makes you think. It’s also honest, and it also doesn’t hurt if it’s fun to sing along to.

Just like dust, we settle in this town.

I see my fans as music lovers. I really love that. There’s no age group or demographic. It’s people of all ages and backgrounds. Country people and non-country people. I wanted to make music across the board.

I didn’t necessarily grow up in a trailer park, but there is a brief part of that in my life. So I can make fun of it a little bit. I’m not too much of an outsider, where I’m just making fun of someone.

I did tennis for a while, and I was actually on the volleyball team for a minute.

I wouldn’t ever do a radio edit because I feel like it would totally go against the point of ‘Follow Your Arrow.’ I just think you’re going to like it or not like it.

I always draw from things around me that people around me have gone through… The story that could be taken really literally is not from my life exactly. But bits and pieces are, and the sentiment behind it is.

I’m all about small towns. I think its a great place to grow up.

Anyone singing about trucks, in any form, in any song, anywhere, literally just stop – nobody cares!

I would love to go to India. And also someday, I want to have a family. That’s my bucket-list.

A great song will be great forever – it’s timeless and classic in that way.

I’d rather be more of the hippie country chick – as in, instead of pointing a finger, just maybe saying, ‘We’re all screw-ups. We’re all in this kind of together. We’re all just figuring this out.

Don’t wreck my reputation / Let me wreck my own.

Just do something that makes you stand out. Even if not everyone likes it, just do it.

I’m really proud to be a woman representing country music.

If you wanna find the honey / You can’t be scared of the bees.

Follow your arrow / Wherever it points.

When something comes to my brain, I don’t ignore it. You never know what it’s going to turn into.

I’d rather have 100,000 people who really get what I’m doing and like it for what it is than a million who can take it or leave it.

Fame freaks me out. Do you just wake up different? I don’t know how to scale it back if it gets too crazy.

A label’s typical plan would be to put something out that’s safer and get fans, and then push buttons, but my idea is to push buttons first, scare off the people who are gonna be scared off, and then the right people will like you for who you really are, and stay with you.

I think if you’re everyone’s cup of tea, that probably means you’re a little bit boring, or you’re not pushing yourself. Creativity happens where it’s dangerous and scary: where you’re not comfortable.