I went to court-reporting school to study stenotyping. After awhile, whenever anybody spoke, in my mind my fingers would be punching it out. Even two years after I quit, my mind still did that.

I've been painting off and on since I was in sixth grade. I don't paint when I'm acting - I'm not really able to split my focus that way. I do it intensely when I'm doing it, but I'm reluctant to take myself too seriously as a painter because that would mean there would be pressure to be better than I am.

When I first started out, I said to myself, if this doesn't happen there will be something else that I can do. That seemed possible because I knew how to do so many different kinds of jobs.

When I wasn't working I didn't know what to do with myself and sort of didn't exist, in a way, when I wasn't working, so I was like two different people. I am not like that anymore.

I decided I needed something that I could feel as passionate about as acting, and something in which I could completely lose myself. I started painting, and I'm still doing it.

I feel less pressure to dress youthfully. I'm 50 and everyone knows I'm 50 - who are you kidding? Jeans are my uniform. I have about 15 pairs.

I think that I am a compulsive person, but now I'm learning to put those compulsions into healthy things.