Quotes from Clay Aiken

I'm not an optimist. I'm a realist ... or maybe even a pessimist. The glass has water in it; that's all I know.

The greatest glory never comes from winning, but from rising each time you fall.

A song can be more than words and music ... when sung with soul a song carries you to another world, to a place where no matter how much pain you feel, you are never alone.

Faith is not about a building or a lifestyle. You can minister in many ways besides attending services or being a preacher. And I think that that's what I feel most thankful for--that I have the opportunity to minister now, in my own way.

I auditioned just for fun. I thought about that the other day after I went to the grocery store and had to sign fifteen autographs before leaving. On one hand, it's just so flattering. On the other hand, sometimes it would be nice to get the bread and leave, you know?

I know this is going to sound cheesy and like I'm trying to be Miss America, but the most important responsibility a celebrity has is to set an example and be a role model. I want to make sure that no matter how long I go through this, I don't fall into the trap of changing and modifying how I do things that aren't a positive example. I want to remain somebody that the entire family can listen to or watch.

When I was a kid, the punishment I disliked the most was writing sentences. My mother loved to make me record my transgressions--always a minimum of five hundred times--and she even bought special spiral notebooks for me to fill up.... No matter how many notebooks I went through, there was always another one waiting in the kitchen drawer.

If I'm signing autographs and I see one hundred people in a line I've got to remind myself, "That person is one one-hundredth of my day, but to them I'm their day." You know what I mean? Unless they meet J.Lo later on.

I think there is a predisposition among Christians that Hollywood is anti-Jesus or anti-Christianity. I was warned I'd have to fight to maintain the freedom to express my beliefs. It's an unfair stereotype, and so far that's been the farthest from the truth. While everyone I work with may not share my beliefs, I have been surrounded by nothing but support.

I don't think that there's substantiated evidence that shows that voter fraud is such a rampant problem that we have to put in place measures that people have to pass in order to exercise that constitutional free right. Voting should be -- and is required to be -- a right that is unencumbered. That does not have tests that people must pass.... Anything put in place to restrict that right, or to make it more difficult for people to exercise it, should be outlawed, and should not be allowed.

I want everyone to vote. I want everyone to be a part of electing officials. Because when we are not a part, when we don't have a very broad voter base, then we don't have true representation.

If other people choose to believe because I do, great. I want to show people God's love through what I do and who I am. At the same time, I don't feel I need to pass out Bibles at the concert.

People are not being paid enough, and we have not increased the minimum wage -- and we should be incentivizing the people who go to work. We should make working full-time something that will pay a living wage.

I appreciate the idea of allowing people to have their own private walk with God. To me, God is about love, not condemnation.

I don't know that I aspired to be in politics, though, no. I mean, this was not a goal of mine. This was not a part of my original life plan. But having done television, and having been able to be in the public eye, and get a platform and a microphone, so to speak -- both figuratively and literally -- I have an opportunity to speak and have people listen.

I liked being able to work with all the different producers and take what they brought to the table and bring my own style to it.

In my ideal world, no child would suffer. Charitable instincts would prevail. There would be global acceptance of all different types of people.

Love others and as you do, that love will return to you.

We need to make sure that the laws we're passing are protecting people. And we should not be voting against something that makes progress just because it doesn't make as much progress as we'd like to see made. As much as I might like to see any number of issues progress in larger steps, I understand that some of these things happen in smaller steps. And so for that reason, progress is progress. And success is success.

I think Washington, in general, is dysfunctional. I think it's high time we put people in Congress who were not beholden to their party, and not beholden to anything but the people who they live around and grew up around, in my case.

I'm around a lot of good people who keep me grounded and don't let me get too high above my raisings. I have some good friends who don't talk about my job, and that's nice. Those are the friends who are my favorites. That helps a lot.

The only reason people go to bars is to get drunk and have sex. To me, bars are what hell is like.

But I was going to be a teacher my entire life, so I wasn't counting on money to much.

My mother taught me that we all have the power to achieve our dreams. What I lacked was the courage.