James Frey: Five Years Later, Part 1

Even though James says he didn't know everything about that 2006 episode of The Oprah Show, he was aware that he'd be confronted with the discrepancies in his highly publicized memoir. "I did understand that," he says. "But I remember coming out and sitting down and almost immediately feeling steamrolled."

James later commissioned a painting by artist Ed Ruscha to depict what the experience was like for him—it is titled Public Stoning and hangs in James' home today.

Yet, James says the fact that he has this painting doesn't mean he sees himself as a victim. "It reminds me of that experience in a way that keeps me on track now," he says. "That lets me know that I'm never going to let something like that happen again. I'm never going to make decisions that way again. I'm never going to make the same kinds of mistakes again. ... That painting, to me, isn't about [being] a victim of public stoning, because I don't think I am. I think whatever happened on that show and whatever happened because of A Million Little Pieces happened because of me. Because I made some bad choices."