Zach Anner Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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

  12 Copy quote

• You can never walk a mile in someone elses shoes, but you can walk a mile in your own and be proud of it.

  Zach Anner

  Shoes, Proud, Miles

  23 Copy quote

• You want the world to be set up for you, but sometimes it just isn't.

  Zach Anner

  World, Want, Sometimes

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  5 Copy quote

• You really just have to have a good attitude, challenge yourself, and you can accomplish great things.

  Zach Anner

  Attitude, Challenges, Challenge Yourself

  11 Copy quote

• 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

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  11 Copy quote

• 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

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  10 Copy quote

• 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

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  5 Copy quote

• My experiences of traveling abroad and going to Italy with my father, having to break down a gigantic electric chair to get on trains. You've got three minutes. You go to Pompeii and there are shockingly few accessible hotels in a city that was covered in volcanic ash.

  Zach Anner

  Father, Cities, Three

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

  13 Copy quote

• 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

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  5 Copy quote

• We'd done a couple of road trips with my big chair, and it was such a hassle if we didn't have the van with the foldout ramp. I figured: There's got to be some option that I can use on the go. Now I can go anywhere with my friends, which is a big, life-changing thing. I can sit on it for as long as I need to.

  Zach Anner

  Couple, Life Changing, Long

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

  9 Copy quote

• I just love all the music. My grandma was a church organist for 40 years, and she got me into jazz music and great songwriters, Harold Arlen, George Gershwin, all those folks. I can't do it, but I have a profound respect for it.

  Zach Anner

  Grandma, Years, Profound

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

  8 Copy quote

• I feel that religion can be used as a tool to guide your life and help you connect with other people.

  Zach Anner

  People, Tools, Helping

  8 Copy quote

• No Atlantis is too underwater or fictional.

  Zach Anner

  Underwater, Atlantis

  Zach Anner (2016). “If at Birth You Don't Succeed: My Adventures with Disaster and Destiny”, p.15, Henry Holt and Company

  8 Copy quote

• Writing was not my medium. I preferred to do video.

  Zach Anner

  Writing, Video, Mediums

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

  6 Copy quote

• What I don't like about the way the media portrays religion is that they seem to weaponize it and use it as a tool to divide people.

  Zach Anner

  Media, People, Tools

  8 Copy quote

• Even if you have an ADA room, every disability is so different that people need different things. A lot of times they'll put something on the toilet to make it higher, and for someone transferring from their chair that's fine, but I transfer from the floor so it causes more problems.

  Zach Anner

  People, Different, Needs

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

  5 Copy quote

Page 1 of 3

← Prev

1

2

3

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin