Clay Aiken quotes:

I know that I've got big ears and a big forehead and that my hair sticks up. But I'm happy with myself. I'm not necessarily trying to win a beauty pageant here.

I know that I've got big ears and a big forehead and that my hair sticks up, but I'm happy with myself. I'm not necessarily trying to win a beauty pageant here.

I decided to study special education and fell in love with working with individuals with autism. That's what I planned to do with my life.

I had a Spanish teacher in high school. I rarely got in trouble in her room because I felt I was disappointing her if I got a bad grade. That had more power over me than teachers who told me I talked too much. That level of respect I had for her made me not want to fail for her.

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 got rid of my glasses and they changed my hair. That's really all they did. They went shopping for me, so the clothes are different too. It wasn't like Extreme Makeover where I got a nose job or anything.

I went to school for special education. I always assumed when I had the opportunity I would love to try and help kids with disabilities.

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 did get a degree in special education.

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

Working with children with autism has provided me with an opportunity to see the world in a different way. I see them strive to overcome obstacles and persevere, and learn to persevere myself. They are my inspiration.

I kind of had my life planned out for me. I'd be married at some point, have, you know, 1.5 children, and be a principal possibly one day. But I think that that was kind of my problem. I allowed myself to plan out my life and didn't let provident direction guide my life.

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

You know, I think I'm a stronger person for realizing that you can't make everybody love you.

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

Well, fortunately we found out that the runner-up our particular year was going to get a record contract also. So it was kind of a - it was bitter sweet but it was an opportunity.

I don't really feel like I have anybody to answer to but myself and God and the people I love.

Well, there are certain words and emotions I don't want kids hearing, and I'm not changing because they think it's going to sell better. This is going to sound horrible, but I got 12 million votes doing what I did.

No matter what the situation you're in, if you're raised in a loving environment, that's the most important thing.

I had the greatest time on Broadway and made friends I never expected to make!

I think I probably hoped for it a little bit, but I'm not an optimist. I'm a realist... or maybe even a pessimist.

Actually, I dont hate cats, Im just kind of afraid of them.

And I think that when I finally decided to let go and let God and allow that to happen, I became a lot more successful than I could have done if I had planned it all myself.

I'm religious. I think this is something God had planned for me.

I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things. I wasn't raised that way, and I'm not going to raise a child to do that.

I sometimes think I might be autistic because I like to know - I need to know - my beginnings and my ends. I don't have to be in control of it, but I need to know what's going on.

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.

It's important that I make a difference in some way. If it's performing and touching someone that way, that's great; if it's being a teacher and helping some kid understand something, that's even better...

I'd hate to have a job where I had to be rude to people.

Everyone deserves the best start in life, which is what UNICEF is working to provide the world's most vulnerable children. Education is essential to a child's development. I hope that as an Ambassador I can encourage people to join UNICEF's mission to make education a reality for children throughout the world.

There are stars out there who would die to have this much exposure.

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 like to talk. I'm a terrible dancer. I love my hometown. I have freckles and oversized ears. I'm a geeks. I have tried not to hide who I am or what matters to me.

The message I'll share...is that inclusion is extremely important for kids with and without disabilities.

I auditioned just for fun.

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

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 could have a degree in music and come on the show, and Simon could still say 'You stink'.

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

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

I'm being trained to shake the bon-bon appropriately.

Well, financially it's a little bit better. But it's better than than when I was a teacher. But I kind of - it's allowed me to buy a house. And I've been able to help my mother with some stuff and my brother. So, that's nice.

It's a whole team of people working 24 hours around the clock to make me look like this.

It doesn't really matter to me how I make a difference, I just wanna make sure that I do.

The biggest problem I had - and the biggest problem teenagers have - is not how they dress, how they look or how they act or talk. It's how they see themselves - their self-esteem. In the tenth grade, I realized I am who I am. I've got big ears and big feet. I can etiher sulk around or I can be happy with who I am. The minute I decided to be confident with who I was, all that other stuff stopped. It's all in the way you carry yourself.

Pain happens to everyone. To grow up, to fulfill your potential, to develop into what God wants you to be-this process takes support. No one succeeds alone.

As long as you're living right, then you don't have to worry about what people see.

I don't understand why people like me! It doesn't make any sense!

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 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.

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.

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 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 had been told by a number of people that if you get half of what you want on your first album, you're doing really well. Pretty much every single thing they had was something that I liked. There were maybe one or two songs I didn't like, and they were taken off the album quickly.

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.

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.

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

I think celebrities have an obligation to the public to not just sing or act.

I'm really not that special. Really, I'm not. I was on a big TV show, but it was just a TV show.

I'm not different. I'm not different at all. The wrapping is different but the gift is still the same.

It's important that I make a difference in some way. It's not necessarily how I make a difference, but I want to make sure that I do.

UNICEF is working for the survival of children worldwide. What can we do to get more Americans committed to the cause?

And I don't think that success can be measured by how many TV shows you're on.

It's not the money. It's not the fame. It's the influence.

I never want to produce anything that a family could not enjoy together. I never want to create art that would embarrass my own children later.

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.

While everyone I work with may not share my beliefs, I have been surrounded by nothing but support.

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 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.

I'm tired and I don't know what day it is.

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.

Because I'm from North Carolina, you think I'm the Andy Griffith show, or something?

I never knew that people made a club for me!

Perseverance. I got cut twice. I got cut in Charlotte. I didn't have to go to Atlanta to audition. I could have said, "I'm not cut out for this." But I said, "I think I'm better than that, I can go try again." So I went to Atlanta and I made it through. Then I got cut the first time around. I could have told them I didn't want to come back for the Wild Card show but I did and look how far I got.

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

I was on TV for almost sixteen weeks during American Idol. It's at the point now where it's old.

A song is like a smile. If you meet people from another country, even if you don't speak the same language, you know what a smile means. A song works the same way. Music produces feelings that need no translation.

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.

Every kiss is a kiss you can never get back.

I mean, that's kind of what this business is about in some ways. You're trying to make everybody like you. But you can't do that. You can't force everybody - anybody to like you if they're just not willing to do it.

When the answer to all my dreams is as close as a touch away, why am I here holding back what I'm trying to say?

I am never going to sound like Johnny Mathis.

I really love live performing!