I originally started redoing houses to deal with stress. I found that the hour I could go to a job site every day took my mind off the 24/7 of thinking about my clients.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
When I was at my height on TV, I was always busy - rehearsing, practising my impressions, learning new material. When that faded, I had to find another way to be creative. Houses were something to do instead. They saved me.
I'm a housewife: I spend far more time on housework than anything else.
I don't have a partner, so I take care of the mortgage by myself, and I was thinking, 'Oh God, I'm going to have to sell the house or find a new career.' I was not in a good place, but it was a real spur to get 'The Girl on the Train' right. I had to nail it and do it really well. It really concentrates the mind, that kind of thing.
When I look back over my career, there was so much stress. And it was because of the business. It was always because of the business.
I think basically I'm lazy, but I have a housewife's mentality when I go about my job.
Once I got married, I started working from an office. I found that having somewhere to go that isn't my house is mentally helpful: 'This is the place where I answer email and write blog posts,' and 'over there is the place where I do the dishes.'
I have such a stressful job that the only way I can get it out of my mind is by running hard.
I spend most of my time thinking about things like laundry and buying stationery supplies.
I enjoy what I do every minute of the day, even when the going gets tough. When I first began writing, I used to work at a desk in the bedroom, of a small development house. My three sons all under the age of 3 would come running in and out of the room every minute.
I realized I didn't need to go to work every day. I could work for the pleasure and the challenge, not for the mortgage payment.