To write an album takes so much focus and selfish time, to just write and think about your life. For me. Maybe not for other people.

I think when I first started discovering I could write songs, I was so naive. And it was after I got broken up with and had my heart sliced up into a bunch of little pieces that I was like, "I'm going to say this." I didn't even know how to play guitar.

I was a different person before I started to write. When I realized I could be a songwriter and that people would listen - that was when I started feeling good in my life.

I wish I could write more make-believe. It's a lot easier to write about hard times and when things are going wrong. But I've never been a private person.

When you write a great song, it just blows you away. When you write a song that connects with people around the world - I mean like it actually transcends language barriers - you see how it can affect people, and it's quite a tall order to follow up on.

Out of all the artistic things I do, music is the most rewarding because it's so hard to write songs.