Clarkson: "I have a big fear of change, or negative change, anyway. I'm basically the same person I was when I won 'Idol,' or when I was 10."

Clarkson: "It's amazing to impact people's lives - it's a cool thing to have the spotlight and be able to reassure people, to say, 'It's OK to be you.'"

Clarkson: "Honestly, I just think we all have special gifts, everyone. You know, obviously, some are more noticeable than others and that's why there's the limelight. Everybody's in it."

Clarkson: "If I can wake up everyday before I die and know that I don't have to serve anyone food or drinks, I will be happy!"

Clarkson: "My friends and family are my support system. They tell me what I need to hear, not what I want to hear and they are there for me in the good and bad times. Without them I have no idea where I would be and I know that their love for me is what's keeping my head above the water."

Clarkson: "Like every other girl in the world, my most embarrassing moment had to do with a guy completely turning me down. His loss!"

Clarkson: "I wish I had a better metabolism. But someone else probably wishes they could walk into a room and make friends with everyone like I can. You always want what someone else has."

Clarkson: "I'm waiting for the floor to drop out from under me."

Clarkson: "I'm the perfect amount of guarded. I don't reveal too much, and I never reveal who the songs are about. They are real life. People get that. I date a lot of musicians and they do the same thing. People that work with me - who I write about too - they get it. It's my creative outlet, my therapy."

Clarkson: "Everyone says I'm like the girl next door... Y'all must have really weird neighbors!"

Clarkson: "I'm not super conservative, and I have no problem with people being risque or owning your sexuality or even putting it out there. I have a problem when it's all you are because you're not being fair to yourself; you have more depth than this."

Clarkson: "I was in a very dark place for a long time. It's just so hard to have normalcy."

Clarkson: "I'm very friendly or whatever, but I would hardly say that I'm that cookie-cutter. I don't live in L.A. or New York. I live in Texas, and I go to hole-in-the-wall bars, so there's no paparazzi there."

Clarkson: "The fact that I get to do what I love and 14 years in, I'm still doing it - I don't know how anything could get better."

Clarkson: "I'm actually not a big fan of the word hope. I think it's a depressing word. I don't want to hope - I want to know. Like I don't hope there's a God, I know there's a God."

Clarkson: "I'm loyal and I think most Texans are very loyal, but I'm also stubborn."

Clarkson: "I live on a ranch in Texas and do my own thing. And I don't care what anyone has to say about it. My joke is that the only people I'm trying to please are myself and my fans, because they're the ones buying my records. And I have the best, most loyal fan base ever."

Clarkson: "I'm always going to live in Texas. Texas is my home - it'll be my home forever."

Clarkson: "I'm cute - and God I hate that. Because that's not cool. I'm like your niece, and nobody wants to date their niece. It's the chubby cheeks. The whole reason people voted for me on American Idol is because I'm an everyday, normal girl."

Clarkson: "I go to bed every night and the list of what I've accomplished is astounding."

Clarkson: "I’m from a small town so, like, everyone’s married with children or about to have children. So it’s a little hard when you go home and people are like - and that’s why people think I’m gay - because they’re like ‘Why aren’t you married?’ And I’m like, ‘it doesn’t happen for everyone right off the bat.’"

Clarkson: "I do cardio. I run. I strength-train using my own body weight. I don't like free weights, because I build muscle easily."

Clarkson: "My kids are obviously growing up very privileged, but I want them to have a servant's heart. We do community service as a family, and I also call them out on things like getting impatient when they stand in line - because they hardly ever have to. But that's just the reality of what they were born into."

Clarkson: "Really, what I try to instill in my fans is to be healthy and happy. I have no desire to be super-skinny."

Clarkson: "My whole point is like, well, if I'm the pop star, then it should be whatever I am. There's, you know, room for Katy Perry's and Adele's and Rihanna's and Lady Gaga's and Ke$ha's and me and P!nk's. I think what's great about all of us is that we represent something different."

Clarkson: "I don't obsess about my weight, which is probably one of the reasons why other people have such a problem with it."

Clarkson: "I get hit on by the hottest girls ever. Oh my god, if I was a lesbian, I would be so in luck. But it's just not my thing. I've always batted for the boys' team."

Clarkson: "I'm always going to be a singer."

Clarkson: "I put on the Hank Williams and the Patsy Cline and the Rosemary Clooney on vinyl - I'm not trying to be some cool indie-rock person, I just love the way it sounds - and throw on a T-shirt and jeans. In Texas, we practically come out of the womb in jeans."

Clarkson: "Books have always been important to me - my mom was a first grade teacher, so I grew up reading all the time."