I grew up in a big Irish Catholic family. My dad was a pretty rough guy. So one of my brothers left home when he was 15 and found his way to the gym. It gave me the opportunity to go and spend some time with him and work out in the gym.

One of the accidental joys of my writing life has been that I've had some lovely surprisingly good fortune with readers and I've brought readers to my dad's work. I can't tell you the joy that gives me. Because my father's work was masterful.

My dad passed away before my freshman year and it altered how I thought. I was depressed - I didn't hang out with my friends. I worked through it by dancing.

Every family is different. I am mom and I am dad and I'm going to do my best. You should be proud walk through life saying I have the coolest family. I am part of a modern family.

Growing up I had a front row seat to seeing two people work really hard. My dad scrubbed toilets at a private Catholic school for a while and that was to help me get through school.

Going through the grief period of my dad and losing him - that was the worst thing because you know when you get that call. When you are seven eight years old you have that almost vision in your mind of what that's going to be like and what your going to feel like and it doesn't prepare you.

On the one hand I've had such a normal upbringing with my mum who has kept me grounded but on the other the wild experiences through my dad.

As it has been told to me my Dad had some kind of deal with Dick Clark. But when we got here that fell through. So we were out here with no job no furniture no food.

From time to time I'll look back through the personal journals I've scribbled in throughout my life the keepers of my raw thoughts and emotions. The words poured forth after my dad died when I went through a divorce and after I was diagnosed with breast cancer. There are so many what-ifs scribbled on those pages.

As much as I transferred my mother to Elizabeth Shore of The Black Dahlia as much as her dad mutated into an obsession with crime in general well I have thought about other things throughout the years.

Keep in my mind my dad didn't become a huge huge mega actor until I was halfway through high school - so right around the time he's going through his big renaissance is right when I'm starting to do my high school revolting.

I don't really plan to be a pop star I just want to be able to make music without the whole My Dad thing hanging over me which everyone in my position goes through.

I found myself very lost after 'The Partridge Family ' and I lost my dad and I lost my manager and I lived in a bubble and it took me 15 years to get through that and a lot of psychotherapy and I'm laughing about it now!

I was born and brought up in Liverpool with my clever little sister Jemma who is 14 and wants to be a vet. My mum Jane is an administrator and my dad Peter is a taxi driver.

If I have a problem stuff's going through my head I feel like using I usually go and talk to my dad... I decided to get sober a lot younger than he did. He first tried to get sober when he was like 32 I believe.

When I was on Broadway when I was little I remember always driving through Times Square with my dad to the theater. Now when I go back you can't even drive on Broadway in the 40s. New Times Square is too touristy to me.

I just went off for two months traveling around Europe on a motorcycle and pretty much turned my phone off. I did 5 000 miles with my dad. We went through Holland Germany Austria Slovenia Croatia Bosnia Montenegro Italy... and then I did Spain and France by myself.