In our culture, I feel like everyone just wants the good life, the dream life, but I'm learning to embrace suffering because with suffering there's so much good that comes out of it.

I really believed music was going to be a big part of my future, and that's why I took a truck driving job, so I could maintain my singing job at night. I put about 30 hours a week just for singing, going between two churches. And in order to afford that, I had to take a full time job so I could do my passion.

Your future is only big enough for you to walk through, not for you and your past to walk through.

I needed to walk through the 'Idol' door to get to the rest of my career.

I have to read something positive every single day. I have to have faith that the day is unfolding in a way that is going to be useful to somebody else... For me, living every day in gratitude has been profound for me.

We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.

What law, what reason can deny that gift so sweet, so natural that God has given a stream, a fish, a beast, a bird?

Any candidate who claims his religion has no influence on his decisions is either a dishonest politician or a shallow follower of his faith.