DIDI CONN

When anything is wrong with your child, your first instinct is to make it better.

I was chomping at the bit to get my career started - so after I took all the theater courses at Brooklyn College I enrolled in a two year program at AMDA in the city (The American Musical Dramatic Academy) I was there for 6 months and loved it.

When I was in fourth grade... this wonderful teacher said you didn't have to write a book report, you could just talk about the book, you could do a drawing of the book, you could write a play inspired by the book, and that's what I did. I got to be so famous. I had to go around to every school and perform it. It was just so natural and fun.

It doesn't matter how your child comes to you. I've never felt such joy and such love. It's the most beautiful delicious little thing.

David Shire and I have been happily married for 21 years! We have a 12-year-old son. David is a genius. He writes the most magnificent music and he is a devoted and loving husband and father. I am so blessed!

I wouldn't believe there was something 'wrong' with my son.

I went to Midwood High School in Brooklyn and then to Brooklyn college for 1 1/2 years.

I never knew that I had an unusual voice. It wasn't something anybody really pointed out to me.

I love working in the theater.

My teachers encouraged me to audition for some professional work during our summer vacation. I landed my first job. It was for the National Theatre Company's Mimika Pantomime troupe. I ended up touring with them for the next two years.

Blue is bright and gives us hope for the future.

When a child is out of control, he or she needs you, the parent, to make them feel safe.

Before 'Grease,' John Travolta was a big star from 'Welcome Back Kotter'... but that's not where I met him. I met him at unemployment when we first moved to California.

In our business, everything is timing.

When I signed my contract to be in 'Grease 2,' my agent said, 'Well, she's going to have a number.' So I did! They wrote me a number where I was teaching Maxwell Caulfield how to be cool. It was called 'Cool Rider.' And it ain't in the movie.

The characters I usually get offered are described as 'none too bright' or 'funny but a little air-brained.'

I thought 'Benson' was going to be more of an ensemble show. But it was called 'Benson' for a reason.

I think being a Pink Lady, for me, meant that I was in the 'In Crowd.' I was one of the cooler kids.

In beauty school, you learn etiquette.

We all want our children to be the best they can be; and one of the blessings of having an autistic child is that you notice every little achievement, and it becomes cause for celebration.

The business of working at getting work is pretty intense. But you don't get the rewards of actually working.

My voice triggers people into recognising me, often at the weirdest times. If I'm in the theatre and talking while in line to go to the loo, the rest of the queue will turn around and say, 'Wait a minute. It's you.'

You go into another time zone when you are a parent of an autistic child, where any micro movement in a positive direction is such a cause for celebration.

It's a phenomenon how 'Grease' is so popular; it really is.

One day, as I was speaking to another mother of a disabled child, I said our secret weapon against this disease is to do all we can without any expectation of results.