When I was 16, nobody else talked like me. Nobody else sounded like me.

Everybody either wanted to take care of me or push me around, you know? I was teased a lot, sure I was, of course. Fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, everybody was taking their spurts except me. I was not growing up.

For a while, I thought, maybe I should direct, until I got to New York and saw the stupidity of that idea. If it's hard to get into acting, what is it like for a woman to become a director?

I aspired to be extremely sophisticated.

I have a surfboard that says 'Linda Hunt Choice TV Actress: Action.' I am an action star! I don't know what that is about, but I like it.

I was always trying to make up for my size, to compensate. So to get people to take you seriously, you have to come at things with a great deal of strength. You have to emphasize that the way you are is unusual. That you don't come along every day.

I think people have always liked in me the combination of being the underdog because I'm a tiny woman but I have enormous authority in myself.