Latest Zach Anner Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I make funny shows and put a positive message out there, showing people who have body image issues that... you don't have to look a certain way.

  Zach Anner

  Issues, People, Looks

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• I've come to be pretty selective about the type of advocacy that I do, because I kind of feel like it's stronger to just do my work and let it speak for itself.

  Zach Anner

  Stronger, Kind, Speak

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• If everything was perfect, it would always be a person-first conversation, but whenever I have the opportunity, I lead with my personality. If they're looking and seeing the disability first or the chair first, I know that I have the ability to change that.

  Zach Anner

  Opportunity, Perfect, Personality

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• I do a lot of conferences, and I did a campaign with the Cerebral Palsy Foundation called "Just Say Hi." They get celebrities to record little messages about how you start a conversation with someone who has a disability, which is to "Just say hi."

  Zach Anner

  Foundation, Campaigns, Records

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• CP is a struggle, but it's also been quite the tool for me to find success and deliver a message. It's something about me that's unique, so it'll open a few doors as well as keep a few closed. If you have the other tools that you develop as an individual, talents, things like that, you can harness this to do positive things in the world.

  Zach Anner

  Struggle, Unique, Doors

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• The thing to do is just make sure that as part of a disability community, we're not isolating ourselves by drawing differences for the sake of progress.

  Zach Anner

  Drawing, Differences, Community

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• I always say, once I get in a room, I can sell myself just fine. I know that not everyone who has a disability has the social skills or cognitive skills that I do, and it may be harder for them to navigate through.

  Zach Anner

  Skills, May, Rooms

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• I feel a lot of personal responsibility to undo the negative stereotypes. I know that it's not coming from a bad place. It's coming from an ignorant place. I can sort of be an ambassador in a subtle way to say, "This is what I am: a comedian, a show host, a writer." It will still always be part of the conversation and people will want to focus on it because there is a culture that is so embedded that if you have a disability, you're someone to be either admired just for living, or be pitied for having to struggle.

  Zach Anner

  Struggle, Responsibility, People

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• I think that's where it comes into play, when you are just looking at a document or whatever and you see the word "disability." Does that automatically trigger something in you that denies someone their personhood?

  Zach Anner

  Thinking, Play, Doe

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• Technically I can get out of my wheelchair and crawl around and do things, but when I've traveled and they've lost my wheelchair in transit, I feel like I need to be bound to it. My functionality and autonomy are often bound to this.

  Zach Anner

  Needs, Lost, Wheelchairs

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• Call yourself and define your relationship to your chair the way you want to, or your disability the way you want to.

  Zach Anner

  Want, Way, Disability

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• The most important thing is to have the conversation, and let people who do make mistakes feel comfortable enough to continue the conversation.

  Zach Anner

  Mistake, People, Important

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• I haven't spoken to Oprah herself. She had so much going on, since her network show was wrapping up at the time we were shooting. I can't fault her for that.

  Zach Anner

  Shooting, Wrapping Up, Faults

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• When I read the script [of Glee], the whole premise was that all the high school kids were being cruel to this kid in the wheelchair, and then the quarterback comes along and has a heart of gold and takes him out of a Porta Potty. That's too often what I see in media, that the characters with disabilities are there to make other people seem like heroes for treating the character with a disability with respect. Those are the kinds of roles that are out there.

  Zach Anner

  Hero, Heart, School

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• There was an agent who wanted to book me for Glee. He lied and said I could sing. He was like, "If you need a guy in a wheelchair who has a great voice, I've got your guy!" I was like, "What are you talking about?" .

  Zach Anner

  Book, Talking, Voice

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• I talk about Breaking Bad being the most brilliant show ever, and even minor characters have subtle nuances and are fully drawn.

  Zach Anner

  Character, Nuance, Brilliant

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• Having a son with a disability helps makes Walter White a more sympathetic character. There's no story line that shows Walt Jr. going through the things that you go through as a teenager with a disability. It's always his relationship to other characters. That was my issue with it.

  Zach Anner

  Teenager, Character, Son

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• There's a whole chapter about my unfortunate manscaping accident. I was so focused on, "I've got to look this certain way and do this to be ready for this." So I missed out on a lot.

  Zach Anner

  Looks, Way, Chapters

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• The biggest disabilities are when you sabotage yourself mentally, those personal demons that get on your shoulder and you can't shake 'em.

  Zach Anner

  Ems, Disability, Demon

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• I didn't have a girlfriend until I was 29, and I thought it was because I'm in a wheelchair. And I realized that it's not that, it's because I listened to what the dismissive part of society was telling me and accepted it as truth. There was nothing that was keeping me from dating or falling in love other than the fact that I was scared of being rejected. And everybody has that fear. That's a universal thing.

  Zach Anner

  Falling In Love, Girlfriend, Dating

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• You may not have a physical impairment, but you have things, whether it's finances, self-esteem, it doesn't matter. It's cut from the same cloth.

  Zach Anner

  Self Esteem, Cutting, May

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• We did a book signing and people came up to me. There was an expectant mother who was like, "I think we might name our child Zach because of your work."

  Zach Anner

  Mother, Children, Book

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• There's a tendency to treat anyone with a physical disability as inspiring. I call it a pedestal of prejudice, in that you're lifting people up to dismiss them. My whole thing is bringing us down to everyone else's level and saying we're all the same. The struggle is the same.

  Zach Anner

  Struggle, People, Prejudice

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• I didn't feel like I was putting anything good into the world, even though it was funny. I wanted to do something more positive that would have an impact. So even when I'm doing naked push-ups or whatever, it's astounding to see how people respond to it.

  Zach Anner

  Impact, People, Naked

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

• I used to be an insult comic, and I didn't end up liking the way that I felt about myself.

  Zach Anner

  Way, Insult, Comic

  Source: abilitymagazine.com