I was doing a children's book on self-esteem, and I really felt like I wanted to shed the shame I'd been feeling - and maybe make it easier for women my age who had probably felt bad about themselves.

I've always put my family first and that's just the way it is.

I'm a disciplinarian. I'm the tough love pet owner. I believe in very well-behaved animals.

You'll never see me in the front row of a fashion show. I'm uninterested in it; I find it trivial and banal and boring.

Fifty is a big corner to turn. It used to mean being put out to pasture, but it's the opposite with me. I feel more vibrant; I'm more active than I've ever been. The F-word really is freedom. It's the freedom to have dropped the rock-the rock of addiction, of family, of comparisons with other people. It's being fit and focused and kind of furious.

I have to be careful to get out before I become the grotesque caricature of a hatchet-faced woman with big knockers.

By the way, food and rent aren't the only things around here that cost money. You sleep on the couch.