Stacie Orrico quotes:

As far as spiritual influences in Christian music, I would say Crystal Lewis - a lot of her songs especially. The ministry she has through her songs has really hit me.

I do not like onions. It's so funny because I am probably one of the least picky eaters ever. Pretty much any type of new food, I'll try it, I'll eat it. But onions, and pork. Pork and onions.

Then all this started to pick up because I signed with ForeFront when I was in seventh grade. It got a lot busier and I was traveling a lot and it wasn't making sense. Especially at a private school, you miss two days, and you get so behind.

I went through seventh grade in private school. I went to private school from kindergarten to seventh grade.

People know who you are when you've never met them. For them, through interviews and seeing you perform, they feel like they know you and you've never seen them before. It's really different, but it's awesome.

I would love to hear all types of Christian artists played all over the world. I'd love to hear good, positive mainstream music played all over the place. I'd love to be able to bring music together. But I have not deserted Christ. I have not deserted my faith.

I've lost some friends. A lot of the girls.

You see so many artists who are so talented end up living sad, empty lives. This industry takes so much out of you that without the accountability and leaving God in the center, you can be left so empty and void.

Every time we've gone somewhere, it's just been better and better and God's always blessed us for following.

We should be recklessly abandoned to Jesus, and just turn it over to Him. Through the support I think the sacrifices will be made and we'll all be cool with it.

It's one thing for the people in the industry to know who you are, because they've heard about you earlier. I have friends calling me from the Christian bookstore because there's a poster on the wall. It's just weird.

So I started home schooling. I was a little freaked out about that, because I' m such a social person, involved in everything. It was awesome. I loved it and I loved being home.

We've never been your typical family. We've moved a lot.

When I get home I'll still have to unload the dishwasher and clean my room. Last night my mom got so fed up of my messy floor in my room she picked it all up off the floor and put it on my bed so I would have to clean it up before I went to bed!

There's gotta be more to life than chasing down every temporary high to satisfy me.

We all want heroes and we all want somebody to look up to.

As far as the girls in my grade, it was always kind of an on-and-off thing. When all this came up, it was kind of hard. My guy friends and my family friends have been so amazing and supportive.

I don't want to shove the Bible down someone's throat with my music. That's not my goal.

I am very determined when it comes to my music, and I grew up just loving those singers who had that urban sort of feeling. So when it came down to making my record, I wanted to have that as well. ForeFront was really good about letting me go in that direction and then of course adding the more pop sounds. I feel very fortunate that I got to explore some unique and creative angles musically.

I don't want to date someone who the whole world knows. Obviously, there are guys you look at and are like, 'Aww yeah, nice,' but I definitely have an anti-celebrity dating thing.

I have always dressed a little bit differently, even when I was in school. I would wear skirts over pants because I went to a Christian private school and wanted to wear short skirts, but we had to wear skirts below our knees, so I put on a pair of jeans underneath so I could wear the skirt, too. When you become an artist you have to be so aware of what you're wearing all the time, but I've definitely wanted to stay classy, girlie, and feminine - I won't walk around in my bra or trashy clothes. I don't feel attractive that way.

I think so many times we feel like we're lacking something in our lives and we try to fill it with the wrong things. Sometimes it's drugs, sometimes it's a relationship you shouldn't be in.

I was in the beginning of junior high. When I was first offered the record deal, a lot of people were concerned, saying to me, "Stacie, you are so young, and you have a great talent but you don't have to do this right now." If you can do it now, you're only going to get better, you're only going to learn more, and you can do it at any point in your life.

I'm such an independent person, I always want to do everything myself.

I've always gotten along with guys better.

Overall, everyone has been respectful of my boundaries and my morals as a Christian and an artist. Sometimes I'll go to photo shoots, and they'll pull out some stuff that I'm not comfortable wearing, and I just tell them 'no'. I'm very glad God made me a person who's not afraid to say what I think. I can just go, 'No, I'm not going to wear that!

Usually a family is led through the mom or the dad and their career and for the family to be led by my career, even though God has led it, could be a lot of pressure.