What parent has it easy? I just never make the difficulty of it an obstacle. I just do it.
— Marlee Matlin
The only thing I can't do is hear. I can drive, I have a life with four kids, I work on TV, I do movies, so the deafness question, is it that they want to know because, what? Not sure.
Maybe my way of communicating through sign made me more in tune with my body and how it moved. Who knows? I just know when I saw a stage for the first time, I wanted to be on it.
If I were offered a cochlear implant today, I would prefer not to have one. But that's not a statement about hearing aids or cochlear implants. It's about who you are.
I'm different, and my manner invites questions. I'm never afraid to answer.
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.
I got a good handshake. A lot of executives tell me I have the best handshake in Hollywood.
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?
Every one of us is different in some way, but for those of us who are more different, we have to put more effort into convincing the less different that we can do the same thing they can, just differently.
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 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.
It was ability that mattered, not disability, which is a word I'm not crazy about using.
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.
I was the youngest and only girl in a family of two older brothers.
I have made the choices that work best for me. I know I cannot please everyone, and that's fine.
I find the mantle of, she works hard for the money, or, she's overcome so many obstacles a bit overused.
Hollywood embraced me in the late '80s because there was a good project I was in and it was different. Nowadays, it's about corporate mentality, box office, youth.
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.
There is nothing better than being a parent. It is the most challenging job one could ever ask for. I love being a mom and I love being a friend to my children as well.
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.
It seems we're always in transition and that it's more about trends than it is about what's meaningful.
I've always wanted to write a book relating my experiences growing up as a deaf child in Chicago. Contrary to what people might think, it wasn't all about hearing aids and speech classes or frustrations.
I listen to Billy Joel. He is fabulous. I saw him with Elton John when they toured together, it was so great.
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.
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.
Everybody's got a job to do, and I do mine as best I can.
At some point we have to stop and say, There's Marlee, not, There's the deaf actress.
