Brad Pitt has stopped drinking and started owning his own "side of the street" when it comes to what went wrong in his relationship with Angelina Jolie.

Pitt just opened up to GQ Style in his first interview since Jolie filed for divorce -- and custody of their six kids -- laying blame at his own doorstop for "boozing too much" and being "an a**hole when it comes to this need for justice" over perceived slights. As he put it at one point, "When I get in trouble it's because of my hubris."

Pitt covers the issue, staring into the camera as he bares his soul in the lengthy Q&A interview. Asked why he stopped drinking, he simply said, "Don't want to live that way anymore."

"I do remember a few spots along the road where I've become absolutely tired of myself. And this is a big one. These moments have always been a huge generator for change. And I'm quite grateful for it. But me, personally, I can't remember a day since I got out of college when I wasn't boozing or had a spliff, or something. Something. And you realize that a lot of it is, um—cigarettes, you know, pacifiers. And I'm running from feelings. I'm really, really happy to be done with all of that. I mean I stopped everything except boozing when I started my family. But even this last year, you know—things I wasn't dealing with. I was boozing too much. It's just become a problem. And I'm really happy it's been half a year now, which is bittersweet, but I've got my feelings in my fingertips again. I think that's part of the human challenge: You either deny them all of your life or you answer them and evolve."

GQ used a house metaphor, asking Pitt how he plans to renovate himself after such a major life event:

"You strip down to the foundation and break out the mortar. I don't know. For me this period has really been about looking at my weaknesses and failures and owning my side of the street. I'm an a**hole when it comes to this need for justice. I don't know where it comes from, this hollow quest for justice for some perceived slight. I can drill on that for days and years. It's done me no good whatsoever. It's such a silly idea, the idea that the world is fair. And this is coming from a guy who hit the lottery, I'm well aware of that. I hit the lottery, and I still would waste my time on those hollow pursuits."

Pitt also explained where he's been living, saying it was "too sad" to be in his Hollywood Hills home at first:

"[S]o I went and stayed on a friend's floor, a little bungalow in Santa Monica. I crashed over here a little bit, my friend [David] Fincher lives right here. He's always going to have an open door for me, and I was doing a lot of stuff on the Westside, so I stayed at my friend's house on the floor for a month and a half—until I was out there one morning, 5:30, and this surveillance van pulls up. They don't know that I'm up behind a wall, and they pull up—and it's a long story—but it was something more than TMZ, because they got into my friend's computer. The stuff they can do these days.... So I got a little paranoid being there. I decided I had to pick up and come here."

GQ asked how he makes sense of the past six months and keeps going:

"Family first. People on their deathbeds don't talk about what they obtained or were awarded. They talk about their loved ones or their regrets—that seems to be the menu. I say that as someone who's let the work take me away. Kids are so delicate. They absorb everything. They need to have their hand held and things explained. They need to be listened to. When I get in that busy work mode, I'm not hearing. I want to be better at that."

The Brangelina split made headlines last September after their flight to Los Angeles in a private plane, in which Pitt was accused of getting verbally and physically abusive with their eldest son, Maddox, 15. The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services launched an investigation and concluded there were no findings of abuse. Jolie filed for divorce the same month.

Pitt told GQ that he and Jolie are now working out the logistics of custody and visitation:

"I was really on my back and chained to a system when Child Services was called. And you know, after that, we've been able to work together to sort this out. We're both doing our best. I heard one lawyer say, 'No one wins in court—it's just a matter of who gets hurt worse.' And it seems to be true, you spend a year just focused on building a case to prove your point and why you're right and why they're wrong, and it's just an investment in vitriolic hatred. I just refuse. And fortunately my partner in this agrees. It's just very, very jarring for the kids, to suddenly have their family ripped apart."

Read the full Q&A for a lot more. At least he seems to have some solid perspective through this, seeing his own part in what happened, and refusing to throw the mother of his kids under the bus as they work through what's best for their children.

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