“At some point in every person’s life, you will need an assisted medical device – whether it’s your glasses, your contacts, or as you age and you have a hip replacement or a knee replacement or a pacemaker. The prosthetic generation is all around us.”

I’ve said this before, but I believe more than ever that confidence is sexier than any body part.

And certainly, we have come far enough in our technology that our language can evolve, because it has an impact.

I’m not an advocate for disability issues. Human issues are what interest me. You can’t possibly speak for a diverse group of people.

You know, I think there are certain words like ‘illegitimate’ that should not be used to describe a person.

And I’m certain we all have one, because I think of a disability as being anything which undermines our belief and confidence in our own abilities.

Our insecurities are our disabilities, and I struggle with those as does everyone.

We all bullet point our triumphs, but I am who I am because of everything you don’t see on my CV. The stuff that doesn’t work out teaches you how to trust your instincts and adapt.

I would slide into second with my prostheses, and the girl on the base could either step aside or meet two wooden sticks.

With L’Oreal, I get to be Aimee Mullins, model. No qualifier. And that means everything to me.

If it’s putting on a great dance record and rocking out in your apartment, do it. If kissing someone for 10 minutes makes you feel confident, do it.

The legs that I have made are far more perfect than the ones nature would have given me – my mother’s side of the family have awful legs.

You feel impacted by not having it. It’s an important part of your daily function and what you can do in a day.

The Pentagon isn’t a place that champions individuality and innovation.

It is our humanity, and all the potential within it that makes us beautiful.

I haven’t had an easy life, but at some point ,you have to take responsibility for yourself and shape who it is that you want to be.

I’ve had journalists asking me, ‘What do we call you – is it handicapped, are you disabled, physically challenged?’

The president of the University said that night, congratulations to you the students, you’ve won a great victory, now the war will end. And I’m certain that he believed it that night and I believed it and we went away happy. Four days later, Martin Luther King was assassinated.