Right now one in three teenagers meets the medical criteria for addiction, which is scary. I'm so driven because when I walked into rehab, I was like, "Am I still drunk? Did the guys give me the wrong address? Am I at a summer camp?" And it kills them. Deaths attributed to drugs and alcohol have overtaken all other emergency-room deaths.

Onstage, I was never the ingenue.

My fantasy life made me survivor. One day I knew that me, this skinny, ugly girl who was only invited to slumber parties when they were forced to - someday I knew I would be someone. That was my driving goal. It wasn't to be famous. I didn't want furs and signing autographs, I didn't care about any of that. I wanted to be someone other than myself.

My way was not to be the petite, gorgeous, little cheerleader. My way of getting by was making people laugh.

And to be different is great. You don't want to be the same.

I like people-watching and fading into crowds.

I am, uh ... a 6 foot tall woman, I feel like I'm a healthy size, I'm not anorexic; and I feel that people who aren't anorexic are punished ... for not being anorexic.