My mother should have been Jewish. She could have taught a class on how to induce guilt.

The sicker mother got, the stranger the people surrounding her became. I called them The Garland Freaks.

One trait of addictive families is that we never recognize our own addictions.

The high point of my entire junior high school career was going backstage after the first concert to meet the Beatles in person. I had a huge crush on George Harrison at the time, having inherited my family's passion for skinny musicians, and I was simply awestruck to be meeting the Fab Four in person.

My mom was a phoenix who always expected to rise again from the ashes of her latest disaster... She loved being Judy Garland.

Living in continual chaos is exhausting, frightening. The catch is that it's also very addictive.

My mother was electric onstage, and I vividly recall the extraordinary power she had over her audiences