Paul Raci

“There are too many talented deaf men and women out there who are actors, who really have chops, who really know what they're doing. So I'm trying to get the idea out there that there's more to be done as far as deaf characterizations. There's a lot more to be done.”

“My mother lost her hearing at the age of five years old, from spinal meningitis.”

“I think deaf people are actually really good at listening, and how ironic is that?”

“Riz is brilliant. Intense, purposeful. When I first met the guy, the very first time I met him, an hour later, we were doing a scene, we don't know each other.”

“You've got to learn your craft; you've got to do it every day. Find a partner. If you're a writer, you've got to write every day. If you're an actor, you've got to act every day.”

“I was the go-between when my father needed to negotiate a contract whether it be our mortgage or my mother dealing with the gas company. I'm a little kid, less than seven years old, negotiating between the hearing man and my deaf parents.”

“When my mother took me to the movies in 1956 to see 'Love Me Tender' with Elvis Presley, what I didn't realize is I'd have to interpret that whole movie for her while I was sitting there. There was no captioning, no accessibility for deaf people for pop culture.”

“There's so much great imagery in sign language.”

“My wife has been my agent for 20 years now and she's been in there fighting for me.”

“It was all about doing theater in Chicago, and I still do some out here in Los Angeles. But there's a difference - acting is a craft, and Chicago is where I learned that craft.”

“The number-one affliction of all of our veterans, of all of our wars - Iraq, Vietnam, back to the Civil War - all over the world, is hearing loss, for obvious reasons.”

“Deaf people are not a monolith.”

“When The Beatles came out, my mother bought me my first concert ticket.”

“CODAs born after 1980 are a different breed. They're so free, because there's an interpreting profession. There was no profession when I was a kid. It could be a harrowing situation, to put a child through that.”

“How must that feel to any Deaf person, especially a culturally Deaf person, who hears nothing? Who goes through life, living their life here in America, and it's as though you're not really in your own country, because nobody speaks your language? It's devastating, to say the least, for many people.”