Tiffany Darwish

The reality of a long-term career is that there are ups and downs.

What I'm hoping is that people in my age group will grow up with me and keep listening.

I'm real cautious about staying a regular teenager. I've had other friends who hit it big with a record or something, and they changed completely. I don't want that to happen to me.

I'm not as naive as some people think.

The first album, I'd had some input, but I was 14 years old then, and I really didn't know what I was talking about.

I am an old soul: I do know so much about music history.

To just be able to sing and show off the chops is kind of why I got into the music industry.

People do think I was a one-hit wonder, that I'm maybe not the kind of singer that I can really be - that impression is there. I have to work really hard to break down those walls.

Music should be fun. If it's not fun, then you're going to get burned out; you're not going to give the best show.

There were just a lot of things that happened between my mother and I, and I thought it would be easier if I lived with my grandmother.

Hopefully, I've established a career, but you can be a big sensation one day, and the next day everyone's going, 'Who? ... Who?'

I've got to overcome that tendency to hide what I write or throw it away.

I wanted to be the country version of Stevie Nicks, but before you knew it, I was heading in a pop direction, touring the world, having No. 1 singles, and loving every minute of it.

I live on eight acres out in the country in Nashville, and it gets creepy and foggy. It's the best atmosphere to write songs.

It's nice to go out to a club and know you can still turn heads.

I've been married most of my life.

Careers will come and go. Talent is always there.

The writing process really became natural when it was real and from my heart, and I was exposed.

I came to Nashville in the early '90s, and I thought, 'OK, enough is enough. I write songs; I just don't have the backbone to show it to anybody. I want to go to Nashville and learn how to properly write a song.'

At 9 years old, I did a lot of benefit concerts for my community.