I've learned how to turn the adversities in my life into enriching experiences. You can actually gain a lot from adversities and they make you the person you are today.

My only ritual is to just sit down and write, write every day.

I could write another collection of personal essays from what has happened to me in the last year alone. I don't seek out my material - it finds me. I am magnetic, somehow.

I always tried to learn Greek, but all I got out of it was, "poulaki mou." ["My little chicken."]

I couldn't help but think, This car is taking me to a mental hospital and my mother is treating it like open-mic night at a Greenwich Village café.

Smoking had become my favorite thing in the world to do. It was like having instant comfort, no matter where or when.

I felt deeply tricked. Stunned. And furious. I also felt my default emotion: numbness.