I think you can't deny that because the cochlear implant exists, the signing world is shrinking.

I have spent a lot of my life trying to do good and be a humanitarian, to write about difficult places, and to tell the story of oppressed peoples.

And I found out about the wonderful world of sign language. I suddenly realized: If we as a society recognize Jewish culture, gay culture and Latino culture, we must recognize that this is a coherent culture, too. I think deafness is a disability for social constructionist reasons.

Identity itself should be not a smug label or a gold medal but a revolution.

We live in the right time, even if it doesn't always feel like it.

I have always believed in trying to be a good person and giving to the world, and treating others in a just, kind, merciful way.

Any community that remains an abstraction is an easy target for prejudice and cruelty, but any community that becomes fully humanized is much harder to treat in that way.