Quotes from Judy Norton

I'm still always learning how to grow and improve myself because I want to be the best possible role model.

I like doing parades, particularly those where a lot of people turn out.

Go back to the basics as life gets more complicated.

They treat kid actors more like an object than persons.

I had seen an English movie musical production of 'Cinderella,' 'The Slipper and the Rose' with Richard Chamberlain, and liked it so much I saw it eight or 10 times.

It wasn't until many years after 'The Waltons' when I had gone back to theater that I had the opportunity to take on a role within a theater company as a writer and director. I found to my surprise that I really enjoyed it as well.

I've been in some small parades where they have turned down some side street and a few people are sitting on the curb with a ham sandwich and a beer. Waving to them is like walking into a living room and waving.

The first play I was ever in was 'Cinderella,' a children's production in Los Angeles when I was only 8. It was strictly a children's show which played weekends for about a year and which included such songs as 'Long Ago and Far Away' and 'True Love.'

It's really an honor when you're creating a fictional show that changes people's lives. That's what I love about this industry. There's always potential to do that to influence people's lives. I always felt a sense of responsibility to try to make that a positive experience.

It's not an easy matter to grow up in the public eye.

When you are in a series, there are always people around saying, 'You should be doing more. You should get more money.' But I think I did the wise thing staying with 'the Waltons.'

I always resented having a guardian and the restrictions of going to school at the studio.

It's tough enough handling the teen years in private without all the pressures of work and long hours on the set.

Actually, for several years, I'd been looking to leave L.A. I was getting more and more disenchanted with it; the smog, the traffic.

I've always loved musical theatre. It's my favorite thing in the world to do.

People told me it was a mistake to marry so young but you can't go into a marriage thinking that because the divorce statistics are so high your marriage won't last. You have to work at it day by day. Though certainly marriage isn't a final, heavy commitment, like signing your life away. It's the type of thing you can always get out of.

If I do have kids, we'll have someone, like a nurse, take care of them, because I don't intend to give up my career.

I guess at my core, I'm an artist. And so the opportunity to utilize my imagination, create things and share stories is what makes me happy and fulfills me.

I love being outdoors.

I want to stay in show business; if show business will have me. Still I'd like people to know that I can do something without wearing bib overalls.

Losing the ability to talk to each other doesn't just happen overnight. Things like that develop gradually.

I thought Norton-Taylor sounded more interesting than Norton alone. Anyway, people were constantly getting my name wrong when I was Judy Norton. People called me Morton and Martin and other variations.

It's not that I have anything against school. I just don't approve of the system.

My parents were divorced when I was seven years old and later we kids moved all over first with my mother and then with my father.