Onstage, I was never the ingenue.

It's a very lonely place, being an addict.

I spent 10 years in New York doing theater.

I want to play a Disney villainess so badly.

I like people-watching and fading into crowds.

I was a full foot taller than any child my age.

I really came out to L.A. to take the money and run.

I'm a strong person, but I'd never resort to violence.

I was such a dork. I was too big. I was really gangly.

I'd so much rather people think I was funny than pretty.

When you're that tall, people talk about it all the time.

And to be different is great. You don't want to be the same.

I was voted Biggest Ham and Likeliest to Become a Celebrity.

I was born in Washington, D.C., and I was raised in Milwaukee.

To actually be allowed to be beautiful is a total first for me.

It was only when I moved to New York that I realized tall is good.

I think Janeane Garofalo is incredibly funny, and I love Dennis Miller.

I don't consider myself a goody-goody, but I like to be perceived as classy.

If you love it, and work really hard at it, it will really happen, I believe. I'm living proof.

I've always just gone with the best role, and I don't care if it's in theater, film or television.

But this show reminds me that there are other aspects to me besides the fact that I'm a funny chick.

My way was not to be the petite, gorgeous, little cheerleader. My way of getting by was making people laugh.

I literally felt like a freak, which is another aspect of the role of Sally that I relate to: total outsider.

I think that there are many different ways of getting and staying sober. Like religion, I just don't think that one way is the only way.

I am, uh... a 6 foot tall woman, I feel like I'm a healthy size, I'm not anorexic; and I feel that people who aren't anorexic are punished... for not being anorexic.

I am, uh ... a 6 foot tall woman, I feel like I'm a healthy size, I'm not anorexic; and I feel that people who aren't anorexic are punished ... for not being anorexic.

In some roles I have to wear fur, and I always make sure it's fake, like in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Faux fur is great because it shows people that faux can look fabulous.

May I say, if you were suddenly put into a woman's body, wouldn't you be slightly interested in your breasts, and why people look at certain parts of you, and why certain parts move like they do?

Yes, creative people are more prone to addiction or addictive behavior. But, equally as prone is your mailman, your mother, your brother, your friend, the guy who does your banking. It's everywhere. The thing that happens in the press sometimes is Whitney Houston. She was just an addict. Just like your uncle Steve.

Right now one in three teenagers meets the medical criteria for addiction, which is scary. I'm so driven because when I walked into rehab, I was like, "Am I still drunk? Did the guys give me the wrong address? Am I at a summer camp?" And it kills them. Deaths attributed to drugs and alcohol have overtaken all other emergency-room deaths.

My fantasy life made me survivor. One day I knew that me, this skinny, ugly girl who was only invited to slumber parties when they were forced to - someday I knew I would be someone. That was my driving goal. It wasn't to be famous. I didn't want furs and signing autographs, I didn't care about any of that. I wanted to be someone other than myself.

Royal Young has accomplished a rare feat in his fresh and riveting debut: he manages to recount his fascinating youth and unconventional family with a mixture of humor, scathing honesty and tenderness. Much more than simply a book about a kid who dreams of stardom, Fame Shark is a thoughtful, hilarious and moving love letter to his family and the Lower East Side of New York City.

I think it became blurry because I grew up in a very private family. I mixed privacy and secrecy up somewhere along the line. Everything became a secret, and I thought that was how you should live. Lying about everything. The mask I put on as a kid to survive was the funny lady. Then the funny person all of a sudden became harder to do without substances. Substances let me keep the mask on longer. Until it doesn't work anymore and you're just a mess.

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