Joely Fisher

I have so much to live up to as well as live down.

My sister Tricia Leigh and I vow to be whatever our niece Billie needs us to be.

I was 2 when my parents - actress Connie Stevens and singer Eddie Fisher - divorced. I was too young to experience the pain of their split, but it was rough growing up with a father who wasn't there.

In 1987, when I was 19, I was studying musical theater at Boston's Emerson College. My sister, Tricia Leigh, told me about a summer acting retreat in Italy. Mom paid, so off we went.

When I had arrived in Italy, I had my CD Walkman and about 100 CDs. The song that spoke to me was Kate Bush's 'The Man With the Child in His Eyes,' from 1978.

I'm a storyteller, and everyone in this family expresses themselves through writing to get through life's milestones.

I realized that I've always been a storyteller.

I like to be challenged.

What I like to think I've done is try to teach all women and my three female daughters, to teach them to rise above stuff, to find things that move you, to bring humor and laughter to everything that you do, and to realize that no other person defines you. Find what's great about yourself, and band together as women.

Sometimes I hid my family connections.

I am the mother of five children.

I never saw myself as much of a storyteller.

I realized I am living an amazing, gorgeous, large life. I want to share this, and that includes the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I love to cook. I make an award-winning turkey chili.

I still get surprised that people don't know that I sing.

I've done a couple of Broadway shows and sang before I did any acting.

They say seven stages of grief. I think it's more like 77.

I love work, but no job could ever compare with the job of being a mother.

I feel like crying and sadness has brought an actual change to the shape of my mouth.

I think that the best way to celebrate the other people in my family is to go on.

My mom says it's an American version of the French name Jolie. My dad says I'm named after Al Jolson.

For some people, it's like I can't be a good actress because I grew up with a silver spoon.

People really feed on someone else's tragedies or problems.

I was raised with Eddie Fisher as a father and Connie Stevens as a mother.

I always thought that I would have a recording career.