Quotes from Maren Morris

I'm a control freak, even though I can be scatterbrained off stage. The only way I can have fun is if I know where everything is.

I just love when girls rock short hair, because they can't hide behind anything. I feel more empowered with short hair.

This never happens, but I was writing with my friend Ryan Hurd and Eric Arjes, and we wrote this song called 'Last Turn Home.' The next day, my publisher emailed it to Tim McGraw's label. He listened to it, and I think within the week, he went into the studio and recorded it. And that never happens.

I'm young, but I've been doing this a long time... There's obviously a lot of hard work that goes into it. It's a hard town. There's a lot of talent here. It's all about timing, too. I just feel like I finally found the right town and the right song.

'My Church' - that was really the tipping point of me going from songwriter to artist.

To turn the radio on and hear so much more diversity, it's so refreshing. That voice that cuts through what you've been hearing, it's inspiring.

I always get less nervous when we get into rehearsals because it just gives me a better idea of how it's gonna go.

I was rejected from 'American Idol' - and I'm happier for it now.

Performing with Thomas Rhett our song 'Craving You,' I'm so excited for the fans to see it and sort of see our worlds come together because I feel like he's sort of a genre pusher and boundary pusher, and I feel the same way about my music.

If I got dropped tomorrow or every single I released from now on tanked, I'd be devastated, but I'd also still be doing this. I'd still be writing songs. I'd still be recording them. I was doing that for four years in Nashville. This is just on a larger stage.

If I had been thrown out into a radio tour when I was 18, or 17, and given a record deal, I don't think... it would have been a total nightmare.

I internalize a lot of thoughts, and sometimes it seems like I'm not listening or totally zoned out, but I'm always on a loop of ideas and song titles. I'm definitely kind of a space cadet, but I'm very laid back.

I love dry British humor. I love to sketch in my off time. I love tequila.

I care about women's rights and reproductive rights and my gay friends being able to keep their marriages official. You don't want your genre to disown you for it - and I don't think they would now - but you still see that sort of hatred and vitriol that comes with disagreeing with the conservative agenda.

I think about the people that I've seen change because they believed in their own hype. I just never want that to happen to me.

It definitely is an ice breaker going into the awards already having one, and it was just so crazy when I heard I did win because I was in London at the time, and we were doing a festival out there, and my manager was like, 'You just won an ACM.' And I was like, 'How? It's so early!'

I feel like it's improving a little bit as we go on, but I've never been to Lilith Fair. It always seemed so cool that it was started by women, for women, and it was a safe place to go and hear all of your favorite female acts in one space.

I think I've learned how to be a better boss. I'm the one running the show now, and in the past, I've always kind of been looking at other people to make the decisions. I feel more confident to run not just my show, but behind the scenes, too.

I feel like, genre-wise, the walls are coming down in Nashville. There are so many writers who have moved to town from all walks of life. There's this immense respect for country, but there are pop songwriters, R&B. Nashville has become sort of this go-to writing city for every genre.

It's hard to say exactly when it all started or what show it was, but I started touring when I was 11. I played all over Dallas and Fort Worth, and eventually I was touring the whole state.

Texas is really special in that we have our own music scene, our own music chart. It's almost a genre on its own. It feels like you can make a great living just touring the state because it's so big, but eventually, I wanted a new challenge.

My lyrics are more country - what I love is the storytelling and the structure, how tight the rhymes can be. But pop melodies have always been intrinsically linked to my writing style.

I've always had an ear for melodies, and they veer pop. My lyrics are more country - what I love is the storytelling and the structure, how tight the rhymes can be. But pop melodies have always been intrinsically linked to my writing style.

Maybe someday there will be a song I write that I never let see the light of day because I don't want it to be uncontainable and have to play it again. And I have written songs like that that are just for me. It's like writing a letter to someone you're angry at but never sending it and just putting it in a drawer.