Star Jones

[on recording the audiobook for Satan's Sisters] Star Jones: I wrote all this sexy language. I just didn't realize I had to say them out of my mouth.

[on earning money for the American Heart Association on Celebrity Apprentice] Star Jones: I had my chest cut open. They disconnected my heart for 22 minutes. This was for real. This was not for ratings for me. It was a way for me to really showcase heart disease in this country.

[on her newest book, Satan's Sisters] Star Jones: I always wanted to write fiction. I already wrote two non-fiction bestsellers. Both came at different points in my life. Fiction gives you a wonderful freedom to take on your own demons and exorcise them. That was important to me.

Star Jones: You'll forgive me, but I'm from the South, so every adult Southern woman gets a 'Miss' in front of her name.

Star Jones: A woman without good friends is a sad woman indeed.

Star Jones: I've always thought about myself as an attractive person, and I do like to dress up and strut, but I've never focused on the size of my butt. I had a breast reduction, but only because my back hurt.

[on the divorce from her husband Al Reynolds] Star Jones: Several years ago I made an error in judgment by inviting the media into the most intimate area of my life. A month ago I filed for divorce. The dissolution of a marriage is a difficult time in anyone's life that requires privacy with one's thoughts. I have committed myself to handling this situation with dignity and grace and look forward to emerging from this period as a stronger and wiser woman.

Star Jones: You can have financial strength, professional strength, emotional strength, but for me without spiritual strength none of the rest of it matters.

[On her family] Star Jones: My grandparents [Clyde and Pauline Bennett] live in North Carolina. They had my mother, Shirley and 8 other daughters [aunts: Pearl (deceased), Elizabeth, Maxine, Evelyn, Doris, Nancy, Betty and Evangeline]. My mother and my father, James Byard, live in Maryland as does my sister, Sheila, and her two sons: Terrell and Tyson. I'm married to Al Scales Reynolds who is originally from Virginia. Al's parents, Ada and Randolph (deceased) Reynolds had 5 additional children [Edward, Edwin, Ed, Gwendolyn and Gwedette] who live in New Jersey, Virginia and North Carolina with a combined total of 11 children. The Bennett/Jones/Byard/Reynolds clan is huge!

[On how she broke into television] Star Jones: As you can see, my break came as a "fluke", so I may not be the one to ask. That said, let me suggest this: Get yourself a specialty niche. The law is mine. I have something to offer that made me special and I created a way to make that specialty work on television. I have spoken to Meredith about this as she is the true journalist and she suggests that you work on your writing and try to intern as much as possible. Recognize that you will not make money in the beginning, but all things worth having are worth working for.

[Why does she think she's a target for the tabloids?] Star Jones: I'm not sure. I mean now I honestly understand people have their jobs and that's their job. It still doesn't take away from it being hurtful but I think also I have this tendency to be a little loud and I'm up front. I'm definitely up front.

Star Jones: My greatest, greatest job was to walk into that courtroom and say, Starlet Jones on behalf of the people of the state of New York. It meant the world to me.

[Has she always been a person of faith?] Star Jones: Always a person of faith but, you know, if I'm honest about it, I think I bought into the hype. I think for a couple of years I was believing that I was doing it all on my own and I wasn't. Sometimes when, you know, God tries to correct you in private and if you don't catch it he'll correct you in public.

[On her wedding] Star Jones: Yes, I enjoyed planning the wedding of my dreams, marrying the man of my dreams. But I take responsibility 100 percent for enjoying celebrity a bit too much. I screwed up. It's intoxicating. I sucked it into my lungs and let it get into my bloodstream. Let's put it like this: Now I've had a transfusion.

[On after leaving The View] Star Jones: I needed to go away for a bit. I also needed to acknowledge that I had lost the immediate connection that I had with my audience.

Star Jones: (Star announced live on air she was leaving The View): I feel like this is the right time to tell you the show is moving in another direction for its 10th season and I will not be returning as co-host next year.