"I’d heard a lot of good and bad things about [Mariah] and was pleasantly surprised by her professionalism and her niceness. She’s a lovely lady and a really good actress as well."

"My first impression of Mariah was that she was an incredible singer, very funny (she's always cracking jokes) and just a very nice person to be around.... after 5 years I still feel the same way. I really enjoy being a part of her team. Normally when I work with a new artist I'm not necessarily a "fan", but there's no question Mariah is a truly great singer, so in this case, yes I was (and am) a fan."

"Her friendship is very important to me. And it has provided me with some of my fondest memories and experiences of being in the music industry. It's just great that she is such a down to earth person who just happens to be a little more famous than most of my other friends."

"I remember the moment I first heard Vision of Love. Then I saw this white girl with a black voice on television, and everything about her bowled me over. You could relate to her and yet she was a magical icon, and throughout my school days all I dreamed of was being like Mariah Carey. She sang with a gospel choir around her, which was always my dream. I just wanted to be her."

"Mariah Carey has also covered it... and about bloody time! It took 21 years for someone to do a proper cover of one of our songs."

"My theory is that Mariah Carey can sing anything. You hear that expression, 'She can sing the phone book’. If you can really sing, you should be able to sing anything. That's [what] the whole competition [is about]."

"Sorry, but when you sing songs that the great Mariah Carey sings, you run the hugest risk of being compared to icons. And right now, there's no one hotter than Mariah Carey and we're constantly reminded of how brilliant her voice is. It's a big, big, huge risk to take on a song like that."

"And I never thought this life was possible,You're the yellow bird that I've been waiting for."

"If I loved you, well that's my fault"

"I wanna be your happiness. I wanna be your common sense pain."

"And in the morning when the sun rise. Look in the water, see the blue sky. As if heaven has been laid there at our feet."

"You’ve been a father to me. Your 1960’s speak. Gives me comatose joy like re-run TV. While the mountainside was shining. Wild colors of my destiny"

"Is it midnight or high noon?"

"The sun is eclipsed as silence swoons"

"Do what you want, when you want, with whoever you wanted to"

"It comes to me in fragments, even those still split in two Under the leaves of that old lime tree I stood examining the fruit Some were ripe and some were rotten, I felt nauseous with the truth"

"They locked the devil in the basement, threw god up into the air Yeah, everything it must belong somewhere"

"In the South the Sun is shining Back in the East the lights went out Out in the West the cars are crashing Up in the North the ice gave out"

"Little soldier, little insect You know war it has no heart It will kill you in the sunshine Or happily in the the dark Where kindness is a card game Or a bent up cigarette In the trenches, in the hard rain With a bullet and a bet"

"Hear the chimes, did you know that the wind when it blows It is older than Rome and our joy and our sorrow"

"I traveled though the atmosphere As a wall of feedback climbed The pegs were gold, the band was old They played in half time"

"Now the sky is a torn up denim and the clouds are just splattered paint It's a room I'm renovating; it's a name I got to change"

"Saw the wave of the future through the crack of the dam Drowned the soul singer in the session band Bless the soul singer in the session band"

"Death doesn't ask It don't owe you that Some things you lose You don't get back So just know what you have"

"Oh, I've made love, yeah, I've been fucked, so what? I'm a cartoon, you're a full moon, let's stay up"

"I tried to pass for nothing But my dreams gave me away"

"I'm a repeat first time offender Who has rewritten history"

"I never thought of running My feet just led the way"

"The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qur'an's mute If you burned them all together you'd get close to the truth still They're pouring over Sanskrit under ivy league moons While shadows lengthen in the sun"

"Squatters made a mural of a Mexican girl With fifteen cans of spray paint and a chemical swirl She's standing in the ashes at the end of the world Four winds blowing through her hair"

"Your class, your caste, your country, sect, your name or your tribe There's people always dying trying to keep them alive"

"And, you know, it's kind of like with people and the tarot cards. Just because you get the death card doesn't mean death or dying. It means transformation. It means changing things around and starting something new."

"Future markets, holy wars Been tried ten thousand times before If you think that god is keeping score, hooray!"

"So I want to get myself attached to something bolted down, So that these winds of circumstance won't keep blowing me around. From when I land to when I leave there is enough time to sleep and sing. I keep running around, when all I want is to lay motionless."

"I'm sorry about the phone call; and waking you. I know that it is late, But thank you for talking, because I needed to. Some things just can't wait."

"And I'm sorry about the phone call and needing you Some decisions you don't make I guess it's just like breathing or not wanting to There are some things you can't fake"

"The drunk kids, the catholics They’re all about the same They’re waiting for something Hoping to be saved"

"so believe you're who you are and stay in character but at the end of the play the audience walks away and ill be shivering cold on a well lit stage"

"so immagine what you want and hold onto that thought cause thats as close as it will ever come and believe you're were you're are keep acting out the part but at the end of the day the trees all get wheeled away and you'll be standing alone in a blank, blank space"

"There is no Hell when you die so don't look so worried"

"You took off your clothes and left on the light, You stood there so brave, you used to be shy, Each feature improved, each movement refined, And eyes like a showroom."

"There is nothing as lucky, as easy, or free"

"Sometimes I worry that I've lost the plot My twitching muscles tease my flippant thoughts I never really dreamed of heaven much Until we put him in the ground."

"I hear if you make friends with Jesus Christ, you will get right up from that chalk outline. And then you'll get dolled up, and you'll dress in white all to take your place in his chorus line. And then in you'll come with those marching drums in a saintly compromise. No more whiskey slurs, no more blonde-haired girls for your whole eternal life. And you'll do the dance that was choreographed at the very dawn of time. Singing "I told you son, the day would come you would die, you'd die you'd die you'd die you'd die"."

"I wanna be a shower in the morning That wakes you up and makes you clean I know I'm just the weather against your window As you sleep through a winter's dream"

"I want to be the surgeon who cuts you open Who fixes all of life's mistakes I want to be the house that you were raised in The only place where you feel safe."

"So I will find my fears and face them or I will cower like a dog I will kick and scream or kneel and plead I'll fight like hell to hide that I've given up"

"I dreamt this ship was sinkin' there was people screaming all around And I awoke to my alarm clock it was a pop song it was playin' loud"

"Now I'm hunched over a typewriter I guess you call that paintin' in a cave And there's a word I can't remember and a feeling I cannot escape"

"So I go back and forth forever All my thoughts they come in pairs Oh I will, I won't, I doubt, I don't, I'm not surprised but I never feel quite prepared"