“Our responsibility is not simply shielding those we care for from adversity but preparing them to meet it well.”

When I watch Mad Men and I see the patronising attitudes to women that are so shocking for all of us to watch now,

It’s society that disables an individual by not investing in enough creativity to allow for someone to show us the quality that makes them rare and valuable and capable.

For me, I never ever felt the ownership or any identity with any community of disabilities. I didn’t grow up being told that I was a disabled child.

Everyone is really afraid of getting out there and not being good. That’s the challenge:

Pamela Anderson has more prosthetic in her body than I do. Nobody calls her disabled.

The best beauty secret, besides sleep and plenty of water, is do whatever it is – before you go out, before you need to feel beautiful – do whatever makes you feel confident.

I said, ‘Well hopefully you could just call me Aimee. But if you have to describe it, I’m a bilateral below-the-knee amputee.’

I feel that I’ve lived and see the same evolution in this regard around disability.

Adversity is just change that we haven’t adapted ourselves to yet.

People presume my disability has to do with being an amputee, but that’s not the case.

Confidence is the sexiest thing a woman can have. It’s much sexier than any body part.

If left to their own devices a child will achieve.

Half of Hollywood has more prosthetic in their body than I do, but we don’t think of them as disabled.

A lot of my life is about will – having the will to prove what my body can do.

Life is about making your own happiness – and living by your own rules.

I admire the ones who keep coming back and doing it, time after time.

What comes easy wont last long, and what lasts long won’t come easy.

So the idea of being able to shop cross-category to buy the beach bag, the summer lip gloss, and the pillows for your pool house makes it into very focused, easy life.

Life is short. People are not easy to know. They’re not easy to know, so if you don’t tell them how you feel, you’re not going to get anywhere, I feel.

Responsibility to yourself means that you don’t fall for shallow and easy solutions-it means that you refuse to sell your talents and aspirations short.

It’s very easy to be cynical about the hall of fame. But on the other hand, it’s really a beautiful thing for someone like me. I dedicated my entire life to this music.

But when he finally does make it, they’re not going to make it easy for him. That never changes.

It don’t matter what competition it is. I make it all look easy.

It’s not easy, though, singing upside down in a headstand on a raised platform with your unfettered breasts hitting you in the chin.