I had always been kind of obsessed with making a home of my own and was always drawing rooms that I wanted to live in, down to pictures on the wall and the faces that would be in the photographs.

I started acting as a child in Community Theatre but I didn't do any serious stuff. It was all musicals like 'Annie' and 'Wizard of Oz.' I was always in the chorus.

I was born with a fierce need for independence.

I'm not a happy person when I'm working.

Whatever education I got was from experience and reading. But I also realize I wouldn't pass my friend's sixth-grade class.

For me, relationships are the real action movies. Bombs are exploding every day and the kitchen is Ground Zero.

I did find my direction at an early age.