Quotes from AJ Lee

I am bipolar, and I am proud. And that is why I wanted to write a book. To shine a light on mental illness, to be vulnerable about the days I let it take control and paid dearly for it, and to tell anyone fighting a similar battle: You are not alone. You are not broken.

The key is to be a personality outside of the ring and then bring that personality with you inside the ring.

There's definitely a list of things I'd like to do. But there's been a lot of things I hadn't even thought would have been possible to do that I'd been able to do, so I think I'll surprise myself and keep breaking that glass ceiling to see what's next. Hopefully people get surprised - that's my main goal.

I remember when I was that girl crying because I was so excited to finally meet Lita. To have girls crying over me is surreal.

For me, Jersey represents going through what you can go through and still surviving. That's the cool thing about people from the Tri-State area. We're fighters. We're survivors, and we're edgier than anyone else on Earth.

When I was diagnosed, I believed my illness would be my great, lifelong weakness. Bipolar disorder was to be my impenetrable prison, and I would be locked up with it in a castle Princess Toadstool style. Thinking there was no way out, I let it consume me.

Everything I was told should be my greatest insecurities and weaknesses, everything that I've been labeled - short, nerdy, skinny, weak, impulsive, ugly, tomboy, poor, rebel, loud, freak, crazy - turned out to be my greatest strengths. I didn't become successful in spite of them. I became successful because of them.

When you see me on TV against one of the other girls, they look 10 times better than me, and I'm OK with that. I make a conscious effort not to wear that much makeup and not have my hair so perfectly groomed. That's just not me. I'm not going to be perfect.

I've been a rescue dog mom several times and occasionally found comfort in scrolling through pictures of animals on various adoption center websites, just to fantasize about adding to the family.

I want to be known for this character on TV two nights a week, and then I want to go away and live my life in private.

I didn't have the easiest time growing up; it's no secret. We were just poor.

I lift pretty heavy for my body weight, and I don't do any of that girly stuff like cardio or any light weights. I go really heavy, and that intimidates some guys. I enjoy that.

I could be anywhere in the country, and people will ask, 'Are you from Jersey?' I'm proud of that. We're a weird breed.

It's funny because I remember playing 'Grand Turismo,' and I would get yelled at by my brother for moving the controller as if it was a wheel. He was, 'It's not gonna help you.' Now you have a Wii, and you could actually move and control it.

I think everything I've tried to do, whether or not it's come off that way immediately, is for the greater good. I'll take the jabs I need to in order to help us all in the long run.

It's funny because there's a part of me that, if something is popular, I sort of become a defiant teenager about it. Like, 'Oh, I'm not gonna like that because everybody likes it.'

My least favorite aspect of shopping is shopping.

I used to be naive. I didn't realize the value of being a whole performer... People start to care about you when they know more about you and see different aspects of your personality.

My only window into the Internet is Twitter because I am afraid of the Internet. I need my mom to hold my hand if I'm going to read anything about me.

I think trying to be flashy and doing things that are out of your realm of comfort is the problem with the Divas.

I actually went to NYU for six months, had some family issues that kind of set me back, and I couldn't afford to go anymore. That was the theme going on in my whole life, you know: money stopping me from whatever I wanted to do.

I say it often, that I feel like I'm just living out the Story Mode in 'Smackdown vs. RAW' that I always used to play.

The trick is for Divas to find what works for them. I've done some ridiculous stuff in my career, but there's still nothing that's gotten a reaction as big as me skipping around the ring.

I was thin and didn't realize how small I was - I was, like, 96 pounds when I got signed. You don't want to be 96 pounds. It's not attractive. I didn't know how to do my hair and makeup. I was such a tomboy.