Her are highlights from the Chris Jericho interview in this months WWE Magazine:

Q: "What was going through your mind when you stepped away from WWE in August 2005?"
A: "I was just mentally burned out after wrestling for 125 years straight. I felt I didn't have the extra spark or push. If you want to be in this business and continue to compete at a top level, you need 100-percent mental commitment. If you don't, you can get hurt, or worse, hurt somebody else. My contract was up and I was able to leave on good terms, which is rare. There were a lot of other projects I wanted to work on, so I thought it would be a good time to step back from wrestling. And I needed to spend a little more time at home with my family, because in July 2006 we had twin daughters.”

Q: “At what point did you start feeling that itch to return to the ring?”
A: “I really wasn’t feeling an itch. When I was done, I was done. I didn’t watch wrestling for a while. I was just really fried. I didn’t have any animosity. If you love pizza and you eat an entire pizza, then you don’t want to look at one for a while. I wrote a book, and without trying to be too sappy, it helped me find myself. I realized that as a kid I had this dream to become a wrestler and I was able to succeed in my dream at a very high level. How many people get to do that? I remembered how much I loved wrestling. I just needed time to reignite that passion.”

Q: “When did you start watching WWE again?”
A: “A year ago. I always followed it and read the reports on the ‘Net. But watching it? I just wasn’t interested. I had to take a step back and chill. I watched John Cena and Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 23 and that was good. But what they did in the hour-long match on Raw [ April 23, 2007 ], that’s when I started thinking, “Holy smokes, I love wrestling!” I e-mailed Vince and J.R. to tell them that that was a match, and that was why I watch wrestling.”

Q: “Are there any Superstars on the roster you’re especially looking forward to taking on?”
A: “I love wrestling John Cena, and our last two matches were two of my best and two of his best. I’ve still got some unfinished business with Triple H and Shawn Michaels. I’ve yet to have a singles match with the Undertaker, which is a rare thing. I’d like to take him and teach him a few lessons. A lot of these new guys need to get experience, but they’re doing really well. I’ll still slap them down like schoolchildren. I think Mr. Kennedy deserves a little bit of a beating. He’s cocky, MVP, too.”

Q: “What advice did some of the other celebs give you?”
A: “I saw Smokey Robinson backstage, and he was sucking on some lemons. I asked him, “Is that good for your voice?” He said, “No man, I just like lemons.” It sucked being the first kicked off, but the ratings went from about eight million to four million after I left.”

Q: “You also just released a new book, A lion’s Tale: Around the World in Spandex. How hard was it to sit down and put the last 15 years of your life on paper?”
A: “I have a journalism degree, and I always wanted to write a book. A week after I left WWE, I got an agent, and soon after that, a book deal. I wanted to write it myself, I just didn’t realize how hard the process would be. So I hared a collaborator, who was king of like a producer I could bounce ideas off of. But I wrote every word in that book. It took me 18 months. I’m a bit of a control freak, so I also picked all of the pictures, captions, the inner sleeve, outer sleeve, back cover quotes, I even swept up under the table and cleaned the toilets of the publishing office. Whatever was needed.”