Camryn Manheim Quotes & Sayings

4/16/85: If I were thin, I'd never say "I am powerless over fudge."
a) I can't believe I actually ever said that. b) Which, of course, isn't to say that I do have any power over fudge. Particularly if it has nuts. — Camryn Manheim

I learned how to sign because when I was growing up in California in order to get into college you needed two semesters of language to get into a University of California school. — Camryn Manheim

When it comes to boys and her weight, I think Ellenor is much more conservative than I am, and she has not had the dialogue I have had about my weight. — Camryn Manheim

I think Ellenor is embarrassed and ashamed and has devoted all of her energy to the law and to helping other people get justice because it's too difficult for her to face her own struggle for justice. — Camryn Manheim

One of my earliest memories is of my father carrying me in one arm with a picket sign in the other. — Camryn Manheim

Both of my parents are professors and everyone in my family has some fabulous degree of something or another and I couldn't get into college because I didn't know a language. — Camryn Manheim

Being exposed to those beauty queens and Praying Mantises at the same time made me ask myself some hard questions. Would I have been so radical had I not been so fat? Could I have been one of the women on the other side parading my beauty of which I was so proud? As I stood there holding my JUDGE MEAT NOT WOMEN picket sign, I recalled all the people who had said to me throughout my life, "You've got such a pretty face." But they never finished the thought. The whole phrase is "You've got such a pretty face, too bad you're fat." But what if I weren't fat? Would I still have attacked this "Meat Parade" so fiercely? The truth is, my fat has informed my politics. And while I'd like to think I would have been just as ardent in my opposition to the objectification of women had I been thin, I'll never know for sure. — Camryn Manheim

I don't even like to be naked in front of myself! — Camryn Manheim

Nobody else knew what to do with me because big women are old. — Camryn Manheim

I placed over a thousand deaf people in jobs throughout my career working for the deaf. — Camryn Manheim

Fashion has always been a little slow in accommodating large women ... We're not asking for philanthropy here. Wake up, we're fat, we like nice clothes, and we've got cash. — Camryn Manheim

My parents have always been offended by my weight, embarrassed maybe. It didn't fit with their sensibilities. — Camryn Manheim

I was scared, because I knew that in the political arena, you have to satisfy so many different types of people at once, and I wasn't sure that I could speak for everybody and be politically correct. — Camryn Manheim

For a long time, I really struggled with the idea of being an actor because I really felt that I should be in the Peace Corps. — Camryn Manheim

Self-acceptance begets acceptance from others, which begets even deeper, more genuine self-acceptance. It can be done. But no one is going to bestow it on you. It is a gift only you can give yourself. — Camryn Manheim

Parents know how to push your buttons because, hey, they sewed them on. — Camryn Manheim

Acting forces you to ask yourself, 'Can my constitution take a decade of constant rejection?' And after ten years, you either make it or you don't. And the problem is they don't tell you in advance. — Camryn Manheim

Try as I might, I couldn't destroy my spirit. And try as I might, I couldn't change who I was. I was left with what to me seemed to be the most difficult option: loving myself just the way I am. — Camryn Manheim

Isn't it amazing how celebrity status preempts even the most ingrained hatreds? — Camryn Manheim

Almost everything I do is related to being fat. — Camryn Manheim

Handsome, thin, sophisticated men often fall madly in love with larger women, we just never see it on TV. — Camryn Manheim

I think the play actually became bigger than me. No pun intended. — Camryn Manheim

Street performers, homemade crafts, keep your wallet in your front pocket and don't buy any crap! — Camryn Manheim

Instead of hating, I have chosen to forgive and spend all of my positive energy on changing the world. — Camryn Manheim

I hate overweight, because it implies that there's a weight standard I should be adhering to. — Camryn Manheim

Years ago women of my size were considered royalty. — Camryn Manheim

People in this country haven't stopped hating fat people, but they've become more kind to me, since in our culture, even though we hate our fat people, we love our celebrities even more. — Camryn Manheim

So instead of beating myself up for being fat, I think it's a miracle that I laugh every day and walk through my life with pride, because our culture is unrelenting when it comes to large people. — Camryn Manheim

Waiting, waiting, waiting. All my life, I've been waiting for my life to begin, as if somehow my life was ahead of me, and that someday I would arrive at it. — Camryn Manheim

It's okay to be a fat man. It's prestige and power and all of that. But fat women are seen as just lazy and stupid and having no self-control. — Camryn Manheim

It never occurred to me that I'd be on a television show or in feature films but when those came into play my dreams changed along the way. — Camryn Manheim

It's important to me that I look good on television because, let's face it, I'm single, and you want somebody to watch the show and fall in love with you. — Camryn Manheim

I don't get it. I just don't get it. If Art is supposed to imitate Life, why do they want all the actors to be thin? There are fat people in the world. Shouldn't there be a few of us actors to represent them? — Camryn Manheim

In my fantasies, I always wanted to play the ingenue, but in reality, in my bones, I am so used to playing the grandmother that I don't feel safe or even sure that I can do it. — Camryn Manheim

The character I play is a wonderful compilation of things I hate about myself and things I love about myself and things that I've invented to make her even more interesting than me. — Camryn Manheim

The way I see it, I can either cross the street, or I can keep waiting for another few years of green lights to go by. — Camryn Manheim

When I meet large women who walk with confidence and are articulate and really have an understanding of how they walk in this world, I love them so deeply for being able to overcome such unbelievable odds. — Camryn Manheim

On The Practice, I get to do what I love to do, and I am making a contribution that will, in the end, help raise social consciousness, dispel some of the myths about being large, and change the way that people view and interact with large people. — Camryn Manheim

One of the things I did when I was in New York, which has a wonderful deaf community, is I have worked on making Broadway more accessible to deaf people. — Camryn Manheim

I've always thought of fat as just a descriptive word. — Camryn Manheim

So to me, fat just seems to be right to the point and the most descriptive way to say it. — Camryn Manheim

I have lived my life in a culture that hates fat people. — Camryn Manheim

The universe is like a pension plan. It will match your investment. — Camryn Manheim

You can either destroy your spirit or you can accept and love yourself just the way you are. — Camryn Manheim