When I was 13, I told Henry Winkler I wanted to act. He said, Do it and don't let anyone stand in your way. His validation just made it all the more true. I haven't stopped thanking him since.

I've been around since I was 19, I won the Oscar when I was 21, I've had a couple of TV series. I've continued to work despite the predictions of some naysayers.

Deaf people can do anything, except hear.

I have a great husband, great parents and in-laws, and I have help with a nanny. It's not easy, but there are others who do it every day and don't have a high-profile job as I do.

It was ability that mattered, not disability, which is a word I'm not crazy about using.

I got a good handshake. A lot of executives tell me I have the best handshake in Hollywood.

I have made the choices that work best for me. I know I cannot please everyone, and that's fine.

I live my life like everyone else; everyone has their own obstacles. Mine is deafness.

Silence is the last thing the world will ever hear from me.

When I learned to sign and speak at the same time, the whole world opened up to me. That's the beauty of encouraging kids who are deaf to use whatever it takes to communicate.

The handicap of deafness is not in the ear; it is in the mind.

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.

Be Like Lightning Which Has The Power To Animate Or Destroy Life.... It's Up To You Which Side You Wanna Take....

The chief pang of most trials is not so much the actual suffering itself as our own spirit of resistance to it.

Poetry expands the senses and keeps them in prime condition. It keeps you aware of your nose, your eye, your ear, your tongue, your hand.

There are only two means by which men can deal with one another: guns or logic. Force or persuasion. Those who know that they cannot win by means of logic, have always resorted to guns.

The clouds are scudding across the moon, A misty light is on the sea; The wind in the shrouds has a wintry tune, And the foam is flying free.

Plagiarists, at least, have the merit of preservation.

I am from Brooklyn, NY, so we could not have many pets, but I always had at least two dogs.

A cat sleeps fat, yet walks thin.

I'm doing one of three things: I'm writing. I'm staring out the window. Or I'm writhing on the floor.