“Most of the time, songs that I write end up being finished in 30 minutes or less. “Love Story” I wrote on my bedroom floor in about 20 minutes. When I get on a roll with something, it’s really hard for me to put it down unfinished.”

“I have ways of channeling the heartbreak. Also, it’s been a really awesome year. I get so excited when a song I wrote that’s very personal to me goes No. 1 and I look down and see people singing the words back to me. That makes me so much happier than anything could ever bring me down.”

“I’ve always loved Def Leppard, ever since I was little. I got to do a TV concert called CMT Crossroads with them, where they pair up a country artist with legends in rock ‘n’ roll. I was singing Def Leppard songs, and they were singing my songs. It was just a complete out-of-body experience.”

“I would like to do a duet with Taylor Hanson, because I have loved Hanson since I was 8. And Taylor Hanson has an amazing voice. And also we’re both named Taylor.”

“I feel like people paying attention to your personal life when you’re in this position is sort of a given. There’s nothing that I can say to make it stop. I don’t live in L.A. I live in Nashville. The paparazzi do not know where Nashville is, so I sort of have a normal life when I’m home.”

“Your feelings so are important to write down, to capture, and to remember because today you’re heartbroken, but tomorrow you’ll be in love again. And you’ll appreciate it more when you can go back and read your journal and realize that the happiness you have is special because yesterday, you cried. I’m so lucky that I get to look at journals from when I was 13 and wanted [a singing career] so bad, but never thought that I would be able to have it, or to get to be on the cover of CosmoGirl.”

“My attitude was the opposite of people who are like, “It’s gonna happen for me. It’s gonna happen for me.” My mantra was always, “It’s not gonna happen for me. Go out and play that show or it won’t happen.” You know? I never expected anything to be given to me.”

“What makes me happy is just curling up in with my mom in her bed and watching a marathon of CSI and Grey’s Anatomy episodes with pints of ice cream. It’s amazing when we get to do that. I think that what people always want is what they don’t have a lot of, and the thing that I haven’t had a lot of lately is getting to curl up in bed and watch a marathon of my favorite shows!”

“I don’t have any interest in going out to clubs right now. I love people, and I love socializing, I just don’t have any interest in being drunk. I don’t worry about [people who say I'm too much of a good girl] because the people who say that, it’s like, wow, you are really trying to find something you don’t like about me. And, honestly, if somebody wants to criticize me for not being a trainwreck, that’s fine with me!”

“I’m the kind of person who needs to feel like everything happens for a reason. When you date a guy and it goes badly, that’s horrible. But if you can write a song about it, then it was worth it.”

“All of this is amazing, but it doesn’t guarantee anything about the future. I still haven’t made it to where I want to be.”

“”I know that a Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania is about the most random place for a country singer to come from but I had an awesome childhood. We had horses and cats, and my mom stayed home with me [and her brother, Austin]. Our dad would come home from work [he's a stockbroker] and then go outside to make a split-rail fence.”

“I like to encode capital letters in the printed lyrics, so they spell out phrases. I encoded the ‘Should’ve Said No’ guy’s name over and over. It was only his first name, but everyone figured it out. I’d get texts from him. He was scared out of his mind I’d crucify him on a talk show. All I could think was, ‘Well, you should’ve said no. That’s what the song is about.’”

“The drama and the trauma of the relationship you have when you’re 16 can mirror the one you have when you’re 26. Life repeats itself.”

Favorite lyrics: “Something written by one of my favorite radio guys, who is also a songwriter: ‘If there was no change, there would be no butterflies.’ He once sent me a thank-you note and quoted that at the bottom, writing, ‘I’m sure everyone is telling you Don’t change. But I think the right thing to say is to always embrace change gracefully.’ That’s a beautiful line.”