I think my capacity to change has given me tremendous happiness, because who I am today I am completely content to be.

I have very short hair. It’s the only cute haircut I think I’ve ever had.

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.

My marriage? Up to now everything’s okay. But it’s a real marriage – imperfect and very difficult. It’s all about people evolving somewhat simultaneously through their lives. I think we’ve emotionally evolved.

So, am I friendly with my daughter and her friends? Yes. Am I their friend? No. Does she shut the door? Yes, and I very much support the shut door.

Kids are going to try drugs and alcohol; that’s part of society.

I thought, while they’re up and firm, why not shoot them once or twice.

I’m a layperson. I barely got out of high school. I have no business telling people what to do or my big philosophy on life. I’m certainly not going to write any sort of memoir.

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

Being an actor, you are recognized for being somebody else, whereas these books are distilled from me.

If I’m honest I don’t think the world would miss me if I never acted again.

Hollywood is the backdrop of my family, and I know that the movie business is incredibly cruel as you get older.

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

Because I know I’m an addict, and I know I’m an alcoholic.

Actually, the books were never a planned career path.

I’ve been going through photos of my mother, looking back on her life and trying to put it into context. Very few people age gracefully enough to be photographed through their aging.

Getting sober just exploded my life. Now I have a much clearer sense of myself and what I can and can’t do. I am more successful than I have ever been. I feel very positive where I never did before, and I think that’s all a direct result of getting sober.

I love performing and pretending – it’s very easy for me.

It was during a cosmetic procedure that I first had painkillers.

I think I felt that I was very well known for my figure and needed to keep that up for my work. And I regret all of it. I felt fraudulent and very shameful.

Now all of a sudden I’m so less interested in pretending to be a lot of other people, and much more interested in being me.

I’ve been in showbusiness all my life, but as an actress I have never been overly driven.

All the work built my fame and certainly made me more money, but the toll it took in my home was not good.

The parameters are such that I don’t get offered a lot of work. I’m sure most directors hear my list of don’ts and say forget it.

Well, I could do it for a day, but I wouldn’t want to be a teenager again. I really wouldn’t.

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.

And I was ashamed of myself for feeling like I had to do that in order to look a certain way. I felt misshapen, just not natural anymore. And I think it was a big stimulator of my drug use.

With short hair you have to get a haircut every two or three weeks. And if you’re coloring your hair, you have to color it that often. Every time I did it, I felt fraudulent.

My deal was that they would use a full-length picture of me in my underwear and a full-length picture of me all done up, and they would write about how long it took and how much it cost, because that was the whole point. It was very liberating.

I think happiness comes from self-acceptance. We all try different things, and we find some comfortable sense of who we are. We look at our parents and learn and grow and move on. We change.

My mother and stepfather were married 43 years, so I have watched a long marriage. I feel like I had a very good role model for that. And, you know, it’s just a number.

I talk too much.

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

I’ve been happily married to Chris for almost 20 years.

The more I like me, the less I want to pretend to be other people.

I try to go to the gym three times a week. And I have to watch what I eat. I’m a normal person.

If you just watch a teenager, you see a lot of uncertainty.

I think my capacity to change has given me tremendous happiness, because who I am today I am completely content to be.