And if you can channel the truth of your own experience onto the stage, that's what the audience wants to see.

I refuse to allow a disability to determine how I live my life. There is only one way to go in life and that is forward.

Having that college-town atmosphere with a live repertory company available was a real gift. I found myself gravitating toward the theater from about the age of nine. I guess it was the environment that got me started.

I did my first apprenticeship when I was 15, then joined the union when I was 17. I worked every summer in high school and college.

We all have many more abilities and internal resources than we know. My advice is that you don't need to break your neck to find out about them.

Even though I don't personally believe in the Lord, I try to behave as though He was watching.

I am optimistic. But I also know that, with time, I'm beginning to fight issues of aging as well as long-term paralysis.