Quotes by Tori Kelly

Reggae is definitely a natural influence. Even living in Southern California, near the water, you get that reggae feel.

Songwriting never gets old. There's always stuff to write about.

The first time I worked out I almost threw up. I did not feel good at all. My friend said, 'You have to get past the first month, you're going to feel so much better.' And she was right: After about 30 or 40 days, I saw changes.

My faith is a huge part of my life. I don't force it into my music, but it's in my experiences, so it comes through. People pick up on what they want to pick up on, but any way strangers connect to a song that I wrote is awesome.

If you're at the top, then brace for the fall.

I'm so thrilled to be partnering up with William Rast. I'm such a fan of the brand and being a part of the new campaign has been amazing.

I've always been a fan of a good skinny jean, which William Rast does so well. I can dress them up or down, and they feel good throughout a long day.

I really like to rock it natural and let my hair go wild, but when I do style it, I slick all the hair over to one side with pins. It's either that or a messy bun.

One of the most important things to me as a songwriter is to make music that's young and fresh but also soulful and real. I want people to feel like they know me once they listen to my songs.

I'm a '90s kid, so I went into the entire album process wanting to incorporate little touches of that sound from hip-hop and RandB. Just enough to where you hear it subtly and then go, 'This kind of reminds me of that time.'

I think with my journey so far, it never felt like an overwhelming, overnight success story. I think that's good for me because I really got to take my time.

The good thing about my fans is that they like when I'm awkward and real, so I'm able to just go on stage and be my dorky self.

I've never seen myself as a pop singer. I grew up listening to gospel, soul and rock. My approach to pop is that, when I was doing my album, I wanted to have raw, genuine lyrics, but wanted it to be easy to process.

I feel really comfortable when it's just me and a guitar. It's special and more vulnerable to strip it down. It can be scary, but it's also empowering.

My fans were the ones who discovered me on YouTube. I don't ever want to forget that.

When I'm on stage, I generally wear what I would wear every other day, but I think my hair is probably bigger on stage -- it seems to be my accessory!

My style is very laid back. I like to be comfortable, but with some kind of piece that pumps it up a little bit -- something more high fashion.

I really grew my own fan base. I started posting videos on YouTube with the help of my parents.

I know Pentatonix. I knew them before they were even a group.

'Funny' is really cool live. You break it down into an acoustic set, and sometimes I'll do that one unplugged and off the mic, depending on the venue.

It'd be cool to do something with Coldplay, and Ryan Tedder's amazing.

All my life, I was even just wanted to attend the Grammys, like, just be there, so the fact that I'm nominated for Best New Artist, it feels like a dream.

I think, for me, the goal was never really for my EPs to go mainstream. I think the intention of them was to create a little bit of buzz and to show my musicality because I wrote and produced the EPs myself. The goal was to experiment, with no rules.

I started writing music when I was 15 in my bedroom, and I'd post them on MySpace, and from there it shifted to doing covers on YouTube and building my Twitter.

Everything I write about either I have gone through or I know somebody has gone through, so it's very close to me, but sometimes it's about taking those feelings and exaggerating on them a little bit: being a bit more dramatic but still keeping them relatable.

When I walked into the studio, the chorus of 'Nobody Love' was already set. For me, the challenge was to make it have depth.

My first competition, I guess, singing-wise, I was six years old, and there's a video of it, too. I'm just, like, stick straight. I'm not moving at all, and I'm just singing.

'American Idol' was fun; it was definitely an experience. I was 16 years old when I did it, and I was curious about how I would do on the show.

I remember growing up singing; even when I was just three years old, I was singing all the time in the house. My parents said I was singing before I could even talk properly.

Nineties hip-hop was a big influence for me; it still is. I love '90s everything. And it's when I was born, too. I'm a '90s kid for sure.

I think in 2016 I'm going to focus on performing a lot more and doing as many shows as I can. There's plans to tour more, and that's where my heart is -- doing the live shows.

It's so important to me to take care of my voice. I do a lot of vocal warms-ups right before I go on.

I use this brand called Ouidad; they're great. Not Your Mother's is another one. Garnier Fructis. I use a bunch of stuff. Literally, I just throw a huge concoction of stuff in my hair after I get out of the shower, and then I diffuse it.

People will come up to me at shows and tell me that a song touched them in a completely different way than I wrote it. That's fun. Fans translating it in their own way.

Why do we even use hashtags? It's just like a sub-thought. Who clicks on hashtags? Nobody.

I would like to be somebody young people, young girls, can look up to.