I learned how to sign because when I was growing up in California in order to get into college you needed two semesters of language to get into a University of California school.

When it comes to boys and her weight, I think Ellenor is much more conservative than I am, and she has not had the dialogue I have had about my weight.

One of the things I did when I was in New York, which has a wonderful deaf community, is I have worked on making Broadway more accessible to deaf people.

Parents know how to push your buttons because, hey, they sewed them on.

In my fantasies, I always wanted to play the ingenue, but in reality, in my bones, I am so used to playing the grandmother that I don't feel safe or even sure that I can do it.

So instead of beating myself up for being fat, I think it's a miracle that I laugh every day and walk through my life with pride, because our culture is unrelenting when it comes to large people.

So to me, fat just seems to be right to the point and the most descriptive way to say it.

It's important to me that I look good on television because, let's face it, I'm single, and you want somebody to watch the show and fall in love with you.

Nobody else knew what to do with me because big women are old.

I've always thought of fat as just a descriptive word.

On The Practice, I get to do what I love to do, and I am making a contribution that will, in the end, help raise social consciousness, dispel some of the myths about being large, and change the way that people view and interact with large people.

I think the play actually became bigger than me. No pun intended.

I hate overweight, because it implies that there's a weight standard I should be adhering to.

I learned how to sign because when I was growing up in California in order to get into college you needed two semesters of language to get into a University of California school.

When I meet large women who walk with confidence and are articulate and really have an understanding of how they walk in this world, I love them so deeply for being able to overcome such unbelievable odds.

Isn't it amazing how celebrity status preempts even the most ingrained hatreds?

I have lived my life in a culture that hates fat people.

I think Ellenor is embarrassed and ashamed and has devoted all of her energy to the law and to helping other people get justice because it's too difficult for her to face her own struggle for justice.

One of my earliest memories is of my father carrying me in one arm with a picket sign in the other.

Almost everything I do is related to being fat.

Years ago women of my size were considered royalty.

My parents have always been offended by my weight, embarrassed maybe. It didn't fit with their sensibilities.

For a long time, I really struggled with the idea of being an actor because I really felt that I should be in the Peace Corps.

Waiting, waiting, waiting. All my life, I've been waiting for my life to begin, as if somehow my life was ahead of me, and that someday I would arrive at it.

Both of my parents are professors and everyone in my family has some fabulous degree of something or another and I couldn't get into college because I didn't know a language.

Handsome, thin, sophisticated men often fall madly in love with larger women, we just never see it on TV.

It's okay to be a fat man. It's prestige and power and all of that. But fat women are seen as just lazy and stupid and having no self-control.

I was scared, because I knew that in the political arena, you have to satisfy so many different types of people at once, and I wasn't sure that I could speak for everybody and be politically correct.

I placed over a thousand deaf people in jobs throughout my career working for the deaf.

The character I play is a wonderful compilation of things I hate about myself and things I love about myself and things that I've invented to make her even more interesting than me.

I don't even like to be naked in front of myself!

The way I see it, I can either cross the street, or I can keep waiting for another few years of green lights to go by.

People in this country haven't stopped hating fat people, but they've become more kind to me, since in our culture, even though we hate our fat people, we love our celebrities even more.

It never occurred to me that I'd be on a television show or in feature films but when those came into play my dreams changed along the way.

Instead of hating, I have chosen to forgive and spend all of my positive energy on changing the world.

Parents know how to push your buttons because hey they sewed them on.

So to me fat just seems to be right to the point and the most descriptive way to say it.

Self-acceptance begets acceptance from others, which begets even deeper, more genuine self-acceptance. It can be done. But no one is going to bestow it on you. It is a gift only you can give yourself.

My mother keeps things in perspective for me. She makes me realize that the acting I do and love is no more important than what one of my brothers does-he works in a shoe repair shop. If my career ever tapers off, I'll go to college.

I had done a lot of rock 'n' roll photography when I was in college. I was one of many photographers who worked for The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and all of these rock 'n' roll bands.

Education is a private matter between the person and the world of knowledge and experience, and has little to do with school or college.

Sounds so silly, but I want to accomplish getting my kids through college.

I wanted to be an actress. In college I was a serious feminist and very political. I was determined to get one thing out of my career and that was respect. I didn't want money. I didn't care about fame.

As compared with the college politician, the real article seems like an amateur.

In high school and college all my friends and my brother wrestled.

The lopsided attitudes of college professors pose a serious challenge to learning because students are so susceptible to becoming lopsided sheep.

Our campaign is powered by college students who are not about to let the first genocide of the 21st century happen on their watch.

My favorite thing is still journalism. I'm almost 50. This has been my life ever since I was in college.

Basically, right before college I got into the Guinness book for my feet and started to do local commercials and little radio spots, just little things and found I really liked it.