And the thing about me is, I have a lot of mellow songs, because they're the easiest for me to write. I wanted to try to make some more upbeat songs, so, I ended up gravitating toward writing songs with friends, which was a great learning process, and also we came up with great songs. Those are the songs that came out the most naturally.

I've written some happy songs but I can't ever play them in public because everybody will just start throwing up.

In whichever way my music can get out there, I'm just like, 'Sure.' It's also through the TV synch licenses that I've been surviving. I don't really make money through record sales. I used to be really picky: 'No, I don't want it to be the song of a commercial,' but nowadays it's what you need to do to get the song out as much as you can.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to put that out there so blatantly, so that before you listen to me you know that I'm Asian. But I thought it was sort of cool to embrace the Korean half of me, which I love.

Even though I don't live at home and I'm four hours away from home, I talk to my mom every day - ask how the kids are doing, ask how she's doing, too.

In the very beginning we were a real tight family but now it's different. You know, toward the end, we had separate limos, stuff like that. It's hard to get six giant egos in the same place.

I was a big reader as a child. My father is a great book lover and a librarian, but he forbid me to read bad literature. I was not allowed to read Nancy Drew or books like that. I often say to him that me becoming a crime author is both a way of pleasing him and annoying him.

When your father directed your mother in 'Orpheus Descending,' the kid's going to be a theater nerd.