I have a big thing with eye contact, because I think as soon as you make eye contact with somebody, you see them, and they become valued and worthy.

I don’t have all answers, but as far as viewing my body… I’m in a place where I can look at my stretch marks and say, ‘Oh, hey, stretch marks!’ and I’m over it.

That’s why fame freaks me out in a lot of ways – because how genuine of a connection can you have when you’re a commodity, and a conversation with you means bragging rights? That’s terrifying...

If I can sit down at my keyboard and have a melody that says something that I can’t with words, that’s a really beautiful thing.

I was bartending when I recorded ‘Same Love,’ and when it was on the radio, too. I remember overhearing people talking about the song while I was making them drinks.

After singing ‘Same Love’ across the nation, it’s given me faith that I’ve underestimated the straight world.

Adele shattered the image of how the stereotypical singer is supposed to look. She has that whole ‘Screw you, I’m awesome for what I do’ attitude, which I really look up to and want to...

It is a little scary to go across the whole country, and basically the world, and be like, ‘What’s up? I’m gay, and you should let me get married everywhere.’ I don’t feel like I’m...

I have gained so much more from my experiences of being open and loving humanity rather than being jaded and being closed-off.

I don’t think of my songs as sad songs. I think of them as vulnerable and honest. I crack jokes in between songs, so people don’t leave feeling too dark.

There I am, chain-smoking and watching YouTube videos in my bedroom at 6 A.M. when a spoken-word video comes on the screen. I knew I had to do it: that it was another part of...

In my field, you can’t really wear the same dress twice unless you want Isaac Mizrahi to scorn you on TV.

I was going to be a teacher. I was applying to graduate school when I got the call to do ‘Same Love,’ actually. I was gonna go to Boston University for my masters in teaching.

As soon as I check into a hotel, I get butt naked and I watch super trash TV like ‘Storage Wars’ and ‘The Bachelor.’

As I got older, I fell in love with Radiohead, and ‘OK Computer’ is one of my favorite albums of theirs. Sonically, the tone of the guitars on tracks like ‘Electioneering’ just rips right through...

It’s a really skewed part of our culture that happiness is the end-all be-all. The people that force themselves to be happy all the time often end up being the most broken.

I like to think that my music allows people that cathartic cry.

I hope people learn the power of vulnerability through my songs. I think vulnerability can save the world. Empathy helps people connect with each other.

There is so much shame and guilt in our society, and I think it has deprived a lot of people from living fully. We are all facing battles… We’ve all had someone who has hurt...

It’s an interesting thing about being a ‘fem.’ People automatically assume that I’m straight.

I would sing to my Beanie Babies, and I sort of created this alternate universe where I was famous, and there were thousands of people that I was singing to.

At this point, I have 10 pairs of cat earrings because fans bring them to me. The next song I write, I’m going to be like, ‘I love Chanel.’

Beauty, by way of fashion, has to do with confidence, with flattering silhouettes, with patterns, with proper fit for body type, and with an abundance of self-love!

It’s taken me a long time to enjoy shopping. As a plus-size girl, you walk into a store, and it can sometimes be like a designer doesn’t know you exist. It’s become a fun treasure...

I remember when I heard ‘Jessie’s Girl’ for the first time, I was like, ‘This is so applicable to lesbians!’

I knew when I shot the ‘She Keeps Me Warm’ video that the comments were not going to be homophobic… that they would be about fat-shaming. I’m a large girl making out with somebody. I...

There’s this idea that when you make a certain amount of money that you should be staying at four-star hotels and taking town cars. And believe me, I will take a town car every day,...

My mom, grandma, great-grandma – we’re all named Mary, and we all play piano and sing.

I wrote the chorus specifically for ‘Same Love’ as a narration of my story. I decided to release ‘She Keeps Me Warm’ as an extension of the chorus because I felt like there was more...

Bike lanes are the coolest. My favorite past time is flipping off cars from my bicycle. Just kidding – I’m more of a silent resentment kind of girl.

Before I got on full-time medication, I believed that my mental disorder was the reason I could create so much and create well, because it made me crazy. I could go to these dark places...

Just because you’re not thin does not mean you’re ugly. You are beautiful because of the light you carry inside you. You are beautiful because you say you are, and you hold yourself that way.

I think I streaked one time when I was 16, which was scary.

I know how I want to operate as an artist. And that is by having an honest, genuine dialogue about this kind of screwed up journey I’ve had that I’m so thankful for.

Yes, I would loved to have just sustained myself through my art, but less than one in a billion musicians gets that life. So rather than being like, ‘I’m an exception!’, like a moron, I...

So I want to make money. I think it’s an OK goal to have. I always felt like I can’t ask for that. But why not?

I’d want it to be really special to both of us, but I’m a huge fan of ‘At Last’ as a wedding song. But what’s also really cool is songs that no one else would...

Even when I’m in a really great, steady and stable place… I’m clinically bipolar, so that always exists – a darkness always exists.

Being in Los Angeles is this brutal awakening, where I feel not good enough as soon as I walk into a room, and I’m wearing the wrong thing, or I don’t have enough make up...

Music for me is a bit more spiritual. There are moments when I’m sitting at my piano, and I don’t realize that I’ve been playing for two hours – it feels like divine power. I...

I think, for me as an artist, there are no boundaries. As long as I’m creating in a way that isn’t trying to re-traumatize any wounds that I do have.

I look up to Tegan & Sara, obviously, Adele and Natalie Maines from the Dixie Chicks. All these artists are strong in their convictions, and they haven’t changed who they are for the music business.

You don’t accomplish a lot by changing people’s opinions by shoving facts down their throat. I think you change people’s opinions by opening your heart up and showing the parallels between you and another person....

The bottom line is: You are in control of your reactions to things and how you view things.

I’m a big emotional mess. I try to talk about things that people don’t like to talk about, especially in music. Hopefully it reaches someone and lets them access their vulnerability. That’s what I want...

For me, writing is just processing.

Body love is more than acceptance of self or the acceptance of the body. Body love is about self-worth in general. It’s more than our physical appearance.

My life is going at the speed of light, so it’s a lot of just trying… to be present in each moment… Giving each situation and each part of life that space and making sure...

I try to harmonize and sing every moment that I can.

I think a lot of us have some form of body dysmorphia… You’re looking in the mirror, and you’re kind of disassociated in some way. I think a good reminder is to actually, physically touch...