I never, never thought one day I will sing at La Scala or I will get the Grammy. I'm lucky. I work a lot with a teacher, with my coach.

I love inspiring people, and I love making good music, but I don't stress about it. I don't think I'm ever going to win a Grammy, and I'm OK with that.

I just want to be successful. I'm not going to sit here and be like, 'I want to win a Grammy' or whatever; if that comes, that's awesome. But I just want to be successful and provide for my whole family and get my family out the hood.

I think cool moments like winning a Grammy deserve a nice little party where you really soak it in and not have to work and stuff. I do remember throwing a party on that Grammy night, but it was work.

In the entertainment business, the biggest gift you could ever get is not an Oscar, it's not a Grammy, it's longevity.

I had a boyfriend who told me I'd never succeed, never be nominated for a Grammy, never have a hit song, and that he hoped I'd fail. I said to him, 'Someday, when we're not together, you won't be able to order a cup of coffee at the fucking deli without hearing or seeing me.

I've apparently been the victim of growing up, which apparently happens to all of us at one point or another. It's been going on for quite some time now, without me knowing it. I've found that growing up can mean a lot of things. For me, it doesn't mean I should become somebody completely new and stop loving the things I used to love. It means I've just added more things to my list. Like for example, I'm still beyond obsessed with the winter season and I still start putting up strings of lights in September. I still love sparkles and grocery shopping and really old cats that are only nice to you half the time. I still love writing in my journal and wearing dresses all the time and staring at chandeliers. But some new things I've fallen in love with -- mismatched everything. Mismatched chairs, mismatched colors, mismatched personalities. I love spraying perfumes I used to wear when I was in high school. It brings me back to the days of trying to get a close parking spot at school, trying to get noticed by soccer players, and trying to figure out how to avoid doing or saying anything uncool, and wishing every minute of every day that one day maybe I'd get a chance to win a Grammy. Or something crazy and out of reach like that. ;) I love old buildings with the paint chipping off the walls and my dad's stories about college. I love the freedom of living alone, but I also love things that make me feel seven again. Back then naivety was the norm and skepticism was a foreign language, and I just think every once in a while you need fries and a chocolate milkshake and your mom. I love picking up a cookbook and closing my eyes and opening it to a random page, then attempting to make that recipe. I've loved my fans from the very first day, but they've said things and done things recently that make me feel like they're my friends -- more now than ever before. I'll never go a day without thinking about our memories together.

I remember watching the Grammys and looking at the performances and crying to my mom saying how much I wanted to be there.