The big thing in my family growing up is that everybody had to play a musical instrument. We were like the von Trapps.

I think that whenever a book is not a challenge, I'm telling the wrong story.

When I was a child, I was one of the kids who wore black all the time, and when the kids asked me why I wore black, I said things like, 'I'm mourning the death of modern society.' I mean, I was a riot.

My parents were very permissive when it came to animals. As long as we earned the money to buy them and built whatever structure it was they were going to live in, we could have any kind of pet we wanted. They would have let us have a rhinoceros if we could have afforded it.

Not only does work experience provide the opportunity to sample a potential career, but it also builds the essential skills often regarded as 'soft skills' that are needed to thrive in work.

Just before a fight, as the ring empties, you can feel it. There is danger and loneliness all around you. Soon it's just the three of you in there: the referee, your opponent, and you. You're in a very lonely moment then. But, strangely, that's when I feel most comfortable. The ring becomes my office, and I go to work.

If my career detour from special education to singing has done one thing, it has afforded me the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others.

I felt the weight of the past at the beginning of my career of singer.