Quotes from Bonnie McKee

A lot of times, if you're not getting inspiration right away, we'll listen to stuff to get inspired.

I'm kinda famous for my barbecues - I'm always hosting parties.

The original title was 'Waking Up Diagonal'. It's the first line of the song. I just thought it was more interesting than 'I Don't Care', which is such a boring title to me. When I hear that song, it breaks my heart a little bit because it's my story.

I've had a lot of successes as a songwriter, and I really have nothing to prove in that arena, so I'm just excited about the next challenge of pursuing this artist thing.

I was born in Northern California and lived there until I was about eight years old. Then my parents moved me up to Seattle. I lived there from ages eight to 16. When I was a California kid, I remember running around in my bathing suit and barefoot all the time and getting a suntan.

I was always super, super musical. So my parents recognized that and put me in choirs, piano lessons, and all that.

I was writing songs as a kid about leprechauns and Catwoman and teapots - whatever it is that little girls wanna sing about. The first song I wrote was called 'Kitten.'

I love really kitschy bad movies. Showgirls is one of my favorites. I saw House of Versace and died. I'm a big fan of made-for-TV movies because those are instant classics, naturally.

I had never really co-written. I thought it was weak or something if I needed to collaborate.

There are some artists that don't like working with other females, which is fine. They have their own thing. I personally love being surrounded by other females.

A line has to have a certain number of syllables, and the next line has to be its mirror image.

When my parents were like, 'We're going to the Northwest,' I thought, 'You've gotta be kidding me.' I was so depressed. The cold weather really did not agree with me. When I moved back down to L.A. at 16, I felt like it was home - it was where I belonged.

I like to think of myself as the people's pop star a little bit. I respect Lady Gaga so much, and I love what she does, but she has this kind of mysterious, out-of-reach thing. I'm just not that - as much as I'd love to have that sort of mystique, I think I'm kind of an open book.

I've been singing since I could talk, pretty much. My dad was really musical and taught me how to sing harmonies and got me a karaoke machine with tape decks.

I started writing my own songs from the time I was a little kid. I would write my own lyrics to other people's songs that I heard on the radio and take whatever song and make it about fairies and angels - whatever little girls sing about.

Try to say something familiar in a unique way so that it's sing-alongable, even if you don't speak English.

'Teenage Dream' was the hardest breakup for me.

There's a lot of little 'Bonnie-isms' in 'Teenage Dream' that I was hoping to keep for myself.

I thought back to my middle-school experience of having slumber parties and watching Romeo + Juliet and staring at Leo and thinking about my first kiss and what I wanted it to be like. And when you have your first real love, it's an epiphany, you know? It's like a whole new world.

I have been doing some writing on the side a little bit with artists that I'm really excited about. Kind of more up and coming people. But, I'm focusing more on my own project. It's a full time job being an artist!

When I think about 'Since U Been Gone,' I think the first thing that comes to mind is 'Livin' On A Prayer' - they're kind of like sisters, a little bit. And 'Call Me Maybe' was so wildly original, and so quirky, and so satisfying.

In real life I'm pretty easy going and pretty chill, I'm not the party girl who will go wild and crazy necessarily.

I know 'Hallelujah' isn't actually a Christmas song, but it has that cozy, haunting vibe that sounds like a winter's night and belongs by a fire.

I think what it means to be an 'American Girl,' and what I wrote the song about, is our freedoms. The idea that we as Americans can be what we want to be and say what we want to say and that we take it for granted.