For me painting is like reading a good book.  It takes me away and into the places I paint.  It is a part of who I am, and is such a large part of my life.

I think Winston Churchill put it best when he said:

Painting is complete distraction. I know of nothing which, without exhausting the body, more entirely absorbs the mind.  Whatever worries of the hour, or threats of the future, once the painting has begun to flow, there is no room for them on the mental screen.