I'm not the fastest writer. I can't just crank out ideas that are good enough.

I'm the goofball. I'm the person cracking people up.

I've always been a very passionate, sometimes overly emotional person. Sometimes things affect me more than they should.

I've gotten to where my hair is like my onstage prop; I need to hide behind it and throw it around - it's my slo-mo effect.

I've realized that Evanescence is who I am.

L.A. doesn't have any big personality to me; it's not inspiring.

Music is therapy for me. It's my outlet for every negative thing I've ever been through. It lets me turn something bad into something beautiful.

My biggest dream from the beginning - besides Evanescence - is scoring film and writing music for film.

Something that's fun for me is a challenge. When you have a challenge and you take on that challenge and succeed, that's the best feeling.

Success gave me confidence as an artist. And now I'm able to do what I want without anybody thinking it's dumb.

'The Nightmare Before Christmas' is my number one biggest influence artistically in every way.

The only place I'm recognized is at the mall, because that's where the teens are.

The way that I've always gone about making music, the rule of thumb, has just been to make what I love.

There's nothing sexy about skin and bone. You gotta have some junk in the trunk.

When I was in high school, I listened to a lot of death metal bands.

When you're miserable, you don't want anyone around you to be happy.

You can't control all the crazy stuff that happens to you. All you can control is the way you handle it.

Evanescence fans aren't the popular kids in school. They aren't the cheerleaders. It's the art kids and the nerds and the kids who grow up to be the most interesting creative people.

I design a lot of things that I wear onstage, but I'm always looking for unique stuff. I like creative things, so anything I can find at a secondhand costume shop to a Helmut Lang store, it doesn't matter - just unique stuff.

I feel like for me the lyric writing really comes from just what's going on in my heart and that's what consumes me; think a lot of our heart is relationships. Not just with boyfriend or girlfriend but all your relationships in your life with other people and our interactions with other humans.