I used to dream of being normal. For me, if Kirk Douglas walked into the house, that was normal.

I work with The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. I sit proudly as one of only two recovering addicts on their board.

I can play rhythm guitar. I know how to hold a guitar and strum it.

Life is not supposed to be this calcified experience where you don't change.

My mom said I was a handful. Now I'm helpful.

Without my women friends, I wouldn't know anything. They've been my teachers and my mothers. My mother was a wonderful person, but she didn't give me a lot of the stuff I needed to advance myself as an adult woman. I have a really strong group of girlfriends, and we share a lot with one another - the complications of raising children, marriages, personal and physical struggles.

People need things. I don't live a monk's existence, I'm a consumer, but I try to do it to the level that doesn't feel like there's an overabundance of something.