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.

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.

There is no executive order; there is no law that can require the American people to form a national community. This we must do as individuals and if we do it as individuals, there is no President of the United States who can veto that decision.

Young people discovering their sexuality must know they walk with a strong tradition and that they are not alone. They have a right to information without being pressured.

Many are needed to plant and water what has been planted now that the faith has spread so far and there are so many people... No matter who plants or waters, God gives no harvest unless what is planted is the faith of Peter and unless he agrees to his teachings.

DJs and people in the street know what they like.

People who keep stiff upper lips find that it's damn hard to smile.

Some people are directors and I think they should stay behind the camera.

We dominated Survivor - there is no way we would not dominate that, too. I can see it already, us making deals with people. That's the best part, and with the Race, it would be even more fun because I've got a lot of tricks up my sleeve.

I'm getting a wider circle of fans now. More women, more middle class people.

We must support initiatives that provide clear, concrete measures and milestones that our troops need for defeating the insurgency, building up Iraqi security forces, and handing over Iraq to the Iraqi people.

Yeah, that's what kind of, we get the idea a little bit yeah, because other people from different countries also try as hard as they can to get a medal or a gold medal in the Olympic Games. And you know, if they can work hard, we can work hard as well.

Well concerning the world records that I did, I think it helps a lot to me, yeah. I think it's a very individual thing because I heard some people say, like, oh I don't like it at all. But I definitely, for me it really made a big difference.