Quotes

The name of my condition is Cartilage Hair Hypoplasia, but you can just call me Billy.

The general public thinks all little people are in circuses or sideshows. We have doctors, nurses, just about every field covered.

[from a 1988 interview] I've never looked at acting as "Ahhh!" and "Gee!" I started in vaudeville when I was five and for me it was just walking on a stage and I'm gonna perform. Later on I was impressed by many things, like when I worked with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas in Tough Guys (1986). That was an "Ahhh!" for me. When I look back, even today, I guess I can go "Ahhh!" because I worked with Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell in Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) when I was nine. Then they were just grown-ups on the stage. As I look back, I'm more awed now than I was when I was actually doing it.

The hardest thing is to erase from minds the stereotypes that people have about people of short stature. You don't see any little people doing newscasts, you don't see any doing sports writing, you don't see any sports announcing, you don't see any coaches, but there are little people who are capable of doing these things, who have proven themselves.

That's where it starts and sometimes finishes. My parents never told me I was small, so I never knew any better. They had to sign for me to play football and basketball, but they never said, "No, you can't. You're too small." I'm not the only one who has proved little people can get along in a big world. There are other little people out there who are doctors, lawyers, school teachers, electronics engineers.