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

I’m gonna be unemployed when people read this. Ha.

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

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?

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

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

What the Bleep Do We Know was not written with a deaf person in mind, but when they met me, it clicked with them to have me in it. But that happens with a lot of actors in Hollywood, not just with me.

I listen to Billy Joel. He is fabulous. I saw him with Elton John when they toured together, it was so great.

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.

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.

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 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.

Everybody’s got a job to do, and I do mine as best I can.

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.

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.

At some point we have to stop and say, There’s Marlee, not, There’s the deaf actress.

The best feeling in the world is when your child comes up to you and lays their head in your lap, for no other reason but just because. I can’t wait to have more.

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

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

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.

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

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.