Marlee Matlin

“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.”

“I like to play around with people who don't know me. Often I'm talking to people through my speaker phone, and after 10 minutes or so they say, 'Wait a minute, Marlee, how can you hear me?'...”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“Differences are scarier now. The dollar isn't so guaranteed if you don't follow what they see as the norm. But I don't moan about it. I just keep working.”

“I was the youngest and only girl in a family of two older brothers.”

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

“There are so many people, deaf or otherwise abled, who are so talented but overlooked or not given a chance to even get their foot in the door.”

“I'm tired of seeing listings of programs I want to watch that aren't closed captioned. And I'm tired of looking for the symbol on the side of the video package.”

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

“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.”

“During a visit to California, when a friend of my grandmother's told my parents that I must be deaf because I was not responding to sounds, my father was absolutely convinced that I was simp...”

“I learned a long time ago from when I did 'Seinfeld' never to take anything seriously, and to be part of the joke is the best way to show what a good sport I was.”

“I did my first series lead back in 1991 on a show called 'Reasonable Doubts' and have done many shows with other actors who are deaf. But 'Switched at Birth' is the first TV show where there...”

“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 sinc...”