For me, disability is a physical experience, but it's also a cultural experience and a social experience, and for me, the word 'crip' is the one that best encapsulated all of that.
It became very clear to me that Yooralla was not as interested in media coverage that explored issues faced by people with disability as it was in giving a pat on the back to journalists who maintained the status quo by giving readers the warm and fuzzies over their morning paper.
Doctors are not fortune tellers, and neither am I. Having lived with disability since birth does not afford me immunity from illness.
The disabled people that do sport, they don't think about what they don't have but try to get better with what they do have. That is the same for me.
It's okay for me to make jokes about disabled people and people with horrible diseases because they make me uncomfortable, and I don't want to be like them.
I think the most successful are the most paranoid. The first thing people do when they buy a mansion is they build the biggest wall you could possibly build around it. What happens is, now you become a target. If I go into the hood, I'm at a disadvantage. They could carry guns. I can't. They can hit me in the face. I can't.
Some people might think that what I've done before made it easier for me to get jobs, but it was actually a disadvantage. I had to work even harder.
The majority of the time, they take air out of the football. I think that, for me, is a disadvantage.
It's one of the disadvantages of succeeding early. I missed simple things like having a driver's license. I think everyone has one. For so many people, a license is an obligation, but it wasn't for me. Licenses are often synonymous with autonomy, but I had my autonomy so early that I've had drivers at my disposal. It was never a priority.
Who shall decide when doctors disagree, And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me?
I think it is important for me to speak out on social issues. Sometimes people will agree with me. Sometimes people will disagree with me. I don't take that personally.
I cut an imposing figure. I am large, and I'm tall, and I have tattoos. I am actually really quiet and shy, but maybe people see me, and they don't want to step out of line, or equate disagreement with stepping out of line with a writer they like.
If my grandchildren were to look at me and say, 'You were aware species were disappearing and you did nothing, you said nothing', that I think is culpable. I don't know how much more they expect me to be doing, I'd better ask them.
Surfing soothes me, it's always been a kind of Zen experience for me. The ocean is so magnificent, peaceful, and awesome. The rest of the world disappears for me when I'm on a wave.
Usually I do a job, and, like, two weeks later, it disappears and is replaced with something else, but 'Get Out' kept growing and growing and growing, and it keeps taking me to rooms I could never get in before.
If I disappoint someone, it's their loss for putting that expectation on me when they don't know me. I can't control what they want.
I really don't know how to be anyone else, and whenever I try to be anyone else, I fail miserably. Or I disappoint myself. It doesn't build my self-esteem, and it doesn't help me grow me at all.
My fans are so important to me, and I would never want to disappoint them.
Fried vegetables, often overbattered and undercooked, tend to disappoint me with their tough or soggy crusts.
When you come to see a picture of mine, I want you to know that I'm not going to do anything that will make you uncomfortable. I want you to know that you won't be disappointed in me.
