Before I won 'American Idol,' I'd never been in a professional studio at all. I'm getting more used to it. I'm really weird, though: I sing way better in a crowd of 3,000. It's easier than singing in front of 2.

It's funny because ever since 'American Idol,' people look at me without makeup and think I'm 15 years old - they think I'm really young and quiet and shy, and that I've never been in a relationship and have never been in love or anything.

In every interview, when they would ask me who should be a judge, I would always say Harry Connick, Jr., so I think I had something to do with him becoming a judge! He has a blunt, dry sense of humor. You never know if he's joking or not, and I think that's going to catch a lot of people by surprise.

Love is one of my favorite things to talk about. Every song will be about losing it or finding it, seeing a guy and not knowing if you want to tell him how you feel yet. I guess I'm a hopeless romantic.

It's very hard for an artist to negotiate their fees. My job is to act; my manager's job should be to handle the business side of it.

Would I want Johnny Depp's career? Sure! But do I want all the trappings and all the stuff that comes with that? I don't know. It's a pretty serious trade off. Can you prevent it? Probably not.

I started my career as an urban planner, working for the city, doing what I would call 'do-gooder' things, particularly for low-income neighborhoods.

The skill set that I think we have as actors is so cool because they train you in ways that you never thought you'd be trained. And that's skills that they can't take back. So as you go further in your career, you can dump all these skills into things.