My mom and I have always been really close. She's always been the friend that was always there. There were times when, in middle school and junior high, I didn't have a lot of friends. But my mom was always my friend. Always.

(when asked how she had the courage to walk up to record labels when she was twelve and thirteen) It's because I could never feel the kind of rejection in the music industry that I felt in middle school.

I think songwriting is the ultimate form of being able to make anything that happens in your life productive. If you get out of a bad relationship that was a complete waste of time, you can write about it and it can become a benefit to your career. How sweet is that?

Well, you know, I never really sit back like 'I'm good enough at this, lets stop working on it.' My attitude has always been if you get better and you see success, that should motivate you to work even harder so thats kind of how I approached everything.

I wish all teenagers can filter through songs instead of turning to drugs and alcohol.

What I've learned is not to change who you are, because eventually you're going to run out of new things to become.

(On "Picture To Burn")Before I sing this song, I always try to tell the audience that I really do try to be a nice person... but if you break my heart, hurt my feelings, or are really mean to me, I'm going to write a song about you. Haha. This song is the perfect example.

I'm not that complicated. My complications come out in my songs. All you need to do to be my friend is like me.

(On her win at the 2007 CMT Music Awards) I cannot believe this is happening right now. This is for my MySpace people and everybody who voted. The fans, y'all, I'm going out on tour with Brad Paisley and this is coming with me to every single [autograph] signing line so you can get a picture of the award you won for me. Thank you so much.

I love it when people say things to me in public and want to meet me, because I want to meet them! Early on, my manager told me, "If you want to sell 500,000 records, then go out there and meet 500,000 people."

I'm so excited, but really nervous, too! I've never been nominated for anything before. I've sat in the nosebleed section watching the CMT Awards for two years in a row now, looking down and hoping that maybe if I worked hard enough, I'd get to sit in the awesome seats the nominees get to sit in. And it looks like that's going down this year!

I'm intimidated by the fear of being average.

You only get so many firsts, Every one is a blessing.

(Referring to her music career) Everything about this business is exciting to me