Blair Fell > Quotes

“It was never an interpreter’s place to make a decision for the Deaf. Our job is to interpret the message well enough so that the Deaf can make decisions for themselves.”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“When stuck in her blues, a Disco Witch can always boogie to another part of the dance floor.”
― Blair Fell, Disco Witches of Fire Island

“It's hard to change things when you are older after life has disappointed you. You become more afraid.”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“It's grammar goulash!”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“You would probably die without the hearing-sighted to assist you, and sometimes you absolutely hate them for that.”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“Being pushed around was bad enough but being pushed around when you can’t see anything at all is the worst thing ever.”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“Everyone, sighted-hearing, able bodied or not- we all need tools to live. That's why the ADA law needs to be amended so every DeafBlind person can have access to the world, including orientation and mobility training, Protactile training, and the right to co-navigator services every week. Access must be considered a human right.”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“What does someone who can't see or hear find attractive?”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“I would have looked at everything more deeply. I would have taken it all in... everything. I would have eaten life with my eyes.”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“After your crying subsided, you felt the cold chill on your wet face, the clog of your nose, the salt-stuck eyelids that were so exhausted from squeezing themselves dry.”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“One of the weirder aspects of the interpreting business is that it is, for the most part, composed of four discrete groups: children of Deaf adults (known as CODAs), brainy progressive women, overly zealous religious folks, and finally, queers like me.”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“I immediately recognized the familiar grammatical errors of a Deaf person who struggles with English: tenses a mess, incorrect use of prepositions, defaulting to ASL structure, etc. It is pretty common for Deaf folks who didn’t have access to proper sign language (or any language) until they started school.”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“We are who we are, and we understand the world based on our experiences, circumstances, and senses.”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“After all, the vast majority of humanity only has the most casual of relationships with the meanings of words. Linguistic one-night stands.”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“The hearing-sighted often try to control our access to the world. Either like my parents did, by not telling me I was going blind, or the way our government does by not giving all DeafBlind free access to SSP's or requiring that all parents of Deaf and DeafBlind babies learn sign language immediately, so they have a common language with their child. In my opinion, without mandated access, the world is being stolen from us.”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“the”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“That’s why the ADA law needs to be amended so every DeafBlind person can have access to the world, including orientation and mobility training, Protactile training, and the right to co-navigator services every week. Access must be considered a human right.”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“How can you remember just some secrets but forget the rest? How can you select only certain parts of the air to breathe?”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“Oh, how the queer and magical, so lonely in their journey to maturity, all long for everyone they love to be queer and magical too!”
― Blair Fell, Disco Witches of Fire Island

“This is what it’s like to be a DeafBlind man with Usher syndrome type 1. You would probably die without the hearing-sighted to assist you, and sometimes you absolutely hate them for that.”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“knowing the world is less about whether you can see and hear and more about the intensity of your curiosity and intelligence.”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“His years having worked as a nurse, not to mention membership in Dory and Howie’s secret dance coven, gave him an air of stoic amusement no matter what was before him, be it a burnt appetizer or the apocalypse.”
― Blair Fell, Disco Witches of Fire Island

“Rule number one of being a successful DeafBlind person: BE NICE ALL THE TIME.”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“When we share with others the secrets hidden inside us, this - THIS- is what saves us.”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“Dory had always been a fan of overwrought eyebrows.”
― Blair Fell, Disco Witches of Fire Island

“Sometimes words are like old sticky candy left in your pocket. They have so many things stuck to them, like old stories and lint, that they have a different taste from the one they are supposed to have.”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“That’s what makes love possible. While we tell ourselves “forever,” inside we know that our time is limited. That’s why we embrace our lovers so tightly when we first meet them. The goddess wisdom in our bones understands the brevity of it all.”
― Blair Fell, Disco Witches of Fire Island

“You searched across an old photo of your mother like it was a map of the world, focusing in on the ocean of her eyes, the mountain of her nose, the soft valley of her mouth. You puzzled her face together, then carved it into your brain to save forever.”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“When people lie, they take away your ability to make a real decision.”
― Blair Fell, The Sign for Home

“One can’t be truly beautiful without yearning.”
― Blair Fell, Disco Witches of Fire Island