I’m a sensitive, sensitive person. Overly sensitive. Extremely emotional.

I think no matter how you think about your music, you’re ultimately in the music ‘business.’ I think you have to be business-minded in some sense. And for me, the real goal… is positive intention...

Treat others as you wish to be treated. Don’t just be nice, but be kind to other people. That can be so rewarding.

I’ve always had a little bit of darkness, and I’ve always been someone who was grieving. I had kind of had a tumultuous upbringing living in an abusive home, so for me, writing has always...

I feel like I’m like a healer in a pop singer’s life.

I came out when I was 17 – coming out in middle or high school is one of the most difficult things that anyone could experience. I wouldn’t wish it on my enemies.

Self-care is the number one solution to helping somebody else. If you are being good to yourself and your body and your psyche, that that serves other people better because you will grow strong enough...

I’m not dieting anymore. I want to eat what my body is asking of me. Just listen to your body in general – it’s all self-awareness.

I used to be on the kitchen floor, crying, wasted and thinking of lyrics. That was the only way I could create – as a tortured artist. I’ve learned that you can be stable and...

After a show over the summer, a girl came up to me who was a pastor at her church, which was not accepting of same-sex relationships. She said that ‘Same Love’ allowed her to come...

When I came out, I said, ‘I’m going to be a proud gay artist.’ I’m not going to be Melissa Etheridge. But she’s a goddess!

If people can find something that they love about themselves after going to one of my shows, then I am so addicted to that feeling. It’s the most gratifying thing on earth.

I feel like if I couldn’t write, I would explode.

I came out when I was 17. I was in the church; I was crying every Sunday for about a year. I came to terms with the fact with this is who I was –...

Sylvia Plath, Rumi, there’s a lot of spoken word poets who do a really incredible job putting their spoken work into page poetry – that’s what I strive to do.

I’m one of the writers that would die if I didn’t say what I needed to say. For me, it’s a matter of survival to write.

I want to go to Italy and France; those are my two places. And I really want to go to Greece. I’ve seen so many pictures on Airbnb that make me think I should be...

Fat bodies are used comically. I respect Rebel Wilson so much, and Melissa McCarthy. I love them both. But so often, I feel like fat female bodies are used as props.

When you’re 17 in the suburbs and know only three gay people, holding hands with your girlfriend is a proclamation.

If you want to help somebody, make sure you’re coming from a place of clarity and complete non-judgment; that way, you can begin to understand their journey, too.

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.