My favorite author is Anton Chekhov, not so much for the plays but for his short stories, and I think he was really my tutor.
When I used to do abstract paintings at school, like everyone else, the tutor said these would make great curtains. I would always neglect the formal stuff that was going on by using colour, because colour kind of came naturally to me.
I don't attend an actual school but I'm still following through with high school. I do work with a tutor for about six hours a day. It's hard core but definitely worth it, and it's my main focus now - finishing up high school before I release my new album and apply to college.
As a person, when I was seven or eight, my dad would try very hard to tutor me through school because I had learning difficulties or whatever. I would wish that they could just plant a chip in my brain so that I would know everything and not have to study.
The only thing I didn't like as a kid was I was required to do a minimum of 3 hours of schoolwork every day, and there was a tutor on set.
I did a lot of my school on set. Some years I went to a private school for a couple of hours, and then I'd always finish up with a tutor. I couldn't do full days, but I tried to maintain my friendships and some normalcy while doing a show.
And I had worked at the comic-book store almost by accident, because I was deciding to make a living as an artist, be it as an art tutor or illustrator, and that's how I wanted to make my living.
Whenever I wasn't in school with a tutor three hours a day, I'd get a knock and be rushed to set and they'd be waiting and I'd film my thing and then I'd go back to school again.
I volunteer with School on Wheels in Los Angeles, and I also tutor with Koreh L.A.
I often think if you have time to sit around the house feeling bad for yourself, you have time to tutor a child. I'm guilty of that exact thing. I will spend more time sitting around feeling bad for myself than actually helping somebody.