I hardly teach. It's more like a gathering of minds looking at one subject and learning from each other. I enjoy the process.

I've been working with the land for most of my life; walking it and photographing it. And I love it to bits.

And in fact I don't believe there is such a thing as a definitive picture of something. The land is a living, breathing thing and light changes its character every second of every day. That's why I love it so much.

But I was, and still am, an avid reader and so when I first started I chose to photograph many of the great writers in this country to try and earn a living.

No, my family is Russian, Georgian, via Ellis Island.

I don't feel I was ever a 'famous' child actor. I was just a working actor who happened to be a kid. I was never really in a hit show until I was a teenager with West Wing playing First Daughter Zoey Bartlet. In a way, that was my saving grace - not being a star on a hit show. It kept me working and kept me grounded.

Too many of the elderly do not have the family or the communal attachments necessary to feel valued; too many are widowed or otherwise alone; too many live in surroundings where they are essentially without the companionship necessary to stimulate a mind in danger of deteriorating.

Awards can't be what's important in your life. Because that only affects you in a sense. Life is so much more than that: It's your family and your friends and that sort of thing.