My Sister's Voice Quotes

“Bitch, cookie, lesbian,” Lacey signed. Margaret smiled. “Oh, it’s such a beautiful language,” she said. “Like a dance in the air.”
― Mary Carter, My Sister's Voice

“Would you like a menu in Braille?”
― Mary Carter, My Sister's Voice

“There was an unwritten rule that hearing people who knew sign should identify themselves whenever they were around Deaf people. Otherwise the Deaf people might be carrying on an extremely private conversation, assuming no one around them could understand them. To not identify yourself was a betrayal of trust.”
― Mary Carter, My Sister's Voice

“Robert pointed at Lacey and then made the sign for “hearing,” but instead of making it at his mouth, he made it at his forehead. It was a sign given to Deaf people who acted like hearing people. It wasn’t a compliment.”
― Mary Carter, My Sister's Voice

“American Sign Language was her language, her birthright, not some subpar substitute for English.”
― Mary Carter, My Sister's Voice

“The biggest barriers she faced were man-made, not physical.”
― Mary Carter, My Sister's Voice

“She didn’t think she was better than hearing people, simply equal. She didn’t want more rights than they had, she wanted the same. She didn’t want to change the way they led their lives, she just wanted to be left alone to live hers. It was draining to constantly be looked at as deficient, handicapped, in need of fixing. Other people’s opinions—that was the handicap she faced, not her hearing loss!”
― Mary Carter, My Sister's Voice

“It never ceased to amaze Lacey how ignorant people were about deafness. Forget understanding Deaf Culture. Forget hearing people respecting them as a linguistic community with a shared history, language, and pride. That was way beyond most hearing people’s understanding. Their perspective was that of pity, impairment, and fixing. Lacey was proud to be a Deaf woman, wouldn’t want to become hearing for anything in the world.”
― Mary Carter, My Sister's Voice