Quotes By Marlee Matlin

I'm different, and my manner invites questions. I'm never afraid to answer.

Watch me when people say deaf and dumb, or deaf mute, and I give them a look like you might get if you called Denzel Washington the wrong name.

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

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

The hearing aids are very helpful for speech reading. Without the hearing aids, my voice becomes very loud, and I cannot control the quality of my voice.

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

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

I hope that through my example, such as my role on 'The West Wing,' I can help change attitudes on deafness and prove we can really do everything... except hear.

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

When I was young I knew I was deaf. I couldn't accept it.

What parent has it easy? I just never make the difficulty of it an obstacle. I just do it.

Why are people so interested in other people's relationships? It's like stealing.

It seems we're always in transition and that it's more about trends than it is about what's meaningful.

I'm not broke. Like everybody else, I owe money.

When it comes down to it, it's about who you know, and who's a fan. It's about whether you're the right age, whether you're hot or not, whether the studio is into you or not.

I learned to speak first, and then to sign. I have never really known what it was like to hear, so I can't compare hearing aids to normal hearing.

The best feeling in the world is when you child just comes up to you and lays their head in your lap, for no other reason but just because.

As a kid, during the school year, my head was often buried in a textbook or Judy Blume book; the words and pictures were the perfect, barrier-free environment for me.

At the end of the day, it's about the best interests of the children.

I can hear you and I can watch your mouth move, and then I put together the sounds and the visual image, and I can understand the words as I integrate the two signals.

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.

Looking back now, thinking about that moment in the lights, with my heart pounding, Oscar in my hand, all I can say is I am grateful and humbled - still to this day. Next to marrying my husband and the birth of my children, it is one of the best days ever.

My family is healthy and happy.

I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and in spite of what most people might have expected from a young girl growing up deaf, life for me was like one long episode of 'The Brady Bunch.' Despite whatever barriers were in my way, I imagined myself as Marcia Brady skating down the street saying 'hi' to everyone, whether they knew me or not.

I am writing my second novel for children for Simon and Schuster.

I guess not being able to hear just made me adventurous and daring. And in most cases, that didn't make my parents very happy with me.

By the time I was a teenager, my desire to be daring and taste everything got me in trouble. Too often, I was in the company of kids my parents would call 'wild.'

When you're up for an award at the Oscars, try as you might, it's hard to concentrate on the show.

I find the mantle of, she works hard for the money, or, she's overcome so many obstacles a bit overused.

How many deaf people do you know in real life? Unless they live in a cave, or are 14, which seems to be true for most people in this business, what could I possibly tell them that they don't already know?