Autistic Quotes

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  The thing about being autistic is that you gradually get less and less autistic, because you keep learning, you keep learning how to behave. It's like being in a play; I'm always in a play.

  Temple Grandin

  Play, Keep Learning, Behave

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• I've learned that every human being, with or without disabilities, needs to strive to do their best, and by striving for happiness you will arrive at happiness. For us, you see, having autism is normal-so we can't know for sure what your 'normal' is even like. But so long as we can learn to love ourselves, I'm not sure how much it matters whether we're normal or autistic.

  Naoki Higashida

  Inspiring, Long, Autism

  Naoki Higashida (2013). “The Reason I Jump: one boy's voice from the silence of autism: one boy's voice from the silence of autism”, Hachette UK

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• I think that autistic brains tend to be specialized brains. Autistic people tend to be less social. It takes a ton of processor space in the brain to have all the social circuits.

  Temple Grandin

  Thinking, Space, People

  "A Conversation with Temple Grandin". "Talk of the Nation Science Friday" with Ira Flatow, www.npr.org. January 20, 20064.

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• I know of nobody who is purely autistic, or purely neurotypical. Even God has some autistic moments, which is why the planets spin.

  Jerry Newport

  Autism, Aspergers, Moments

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• What would happen if the autism gene was eliminated from the gene pool? You would have a bunch of people standing around in a cave, chatting and socializing and not getting anything done.

  Temple Grandin

  People, Autism, Caves

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• I am much less autistic now, compared to when I was young. I remember some behaviors like picking carpet fuzz and watching spinning plates for hours. I didn't want to be touched. I couldn't shut out background noise. I didn't talk until I was about 4 years old. I screamed. I hummed. But as I grew up, I improved.

  Temple Grandin

  Years, Spinning Plates, Background Noise

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• I sometimes think I might be autistic because I like to know - I need to know - my beginnings and my ends. I don't have to be in control of it, but I need to know what's going on.

  Clay Aiken

  Thinking, Needs, Might

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• Autism's a very big spectrum. At one end of the spectrum, Einstein would probably be labeled autistic, Steve Jobs, half of Silicon Valley, you know, Van Gogh. And at the other end of the spectrum, you got much more severe handicaps where they never learn to speak.

  Temple Grandin

  Jobs, Autism, Valleys

  "Autism & animal welfare activist Temple Grandin". "The Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. July 5, 2013.

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• It seems that for success in science or art, a dash of autism is essential.

  Hans Asperger

  Funny, Success, Art

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• If I could snap my fingers and be nonautistic, I would not. Autism is part of what I am.

  Temple Grandin

  Inspiring, Autism, Fingers

  Temple Grandin (2009). “Thinking in Pictures”, p.34, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• Mom worked with autistic children.

  Isabel Lucas

  Mom, Children, Autistic Children

  Interview with Mark Jacobs, www.interviewmagazine.com. October 23, 2011.

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• As you may know, some of the stereotyped behaviors exhibited by autistic children are also found in zoo animals who are raised in a barren environment.

  Temple Grandin

  Zoos, Children, Animal

  Interview with Stephen Edelson, www.autism.com. February 1, 1996.

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• It's very important for the parents of young autistic children to encourage them to talk, or for those that don't talk, to give them a way of communicating, like a picture board, where they can point to a glass of milk, or a jacket if they're cold, or the bathroom. If they want something, then they need to learn to request that thing.

  Temple Grandin

  Children, Glasses, Want Something

  "Q&A: Temple Grandin on Autism & Language". Interview with Vikki Valentine and Jon Hamilton, www.npr.org. July 9, 2006.

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• Some autistic children cannot stand the sound of certain voices. I have come across cases where teachers tell me that certain children have problems with their voice or another person's voice. This problem tends to be related to high-pitched ladies' voices.

  Temple Grandin

  Teacher, Children, Voice

  Interview with Dr. Stephen Edelson, www.autism.com. February 1, 1996.

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• Some teachers just have a knack for working with autistic children. Other teachers do not have it.

  Temple Grandin

  Teacher, Children, Knack

  Interview with Dr. Stephen Edelson, www.autism.com. February 1, 1996.

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• You have got to keep autistic children engaged with the world. You cannot let them tune out.

  Temple Grandin

  Children, Tunes, Engagement

  Interview with Dr. Stephen Edelson, www.autism.com. February 1, 1996.

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• Research demonstrates that autistic traits are distributed into the non-autistic population; some people have more of them, some have fewer. History suggests that many individuals whom we would today diagnose as autistic - some severely so - contributed profoundly to our art, our math, our science, and our literature.

  Morton Ann Gernsbacher

  Art, Math, People

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• Normal people have an incredible lack of empathy. They have good emotional empathy, but they don't have much empathy for the autistic kid who is screaming at the baseball game because he can't stand the sensory overload. Or the autistic kid having a meltdown in the school cafeteria because there's too much stimulation.

  Temple Grandin

  Baseball, Children, School

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• I know a number of autistic adults that are doing extremely well on Prozac.

  Temple Grandin

  Numbers, Adults, Prozac

  Interview with Dr. Stephen Edelson, www.autism.com. February 01, 1996.

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• At one point, my house was a school for autistic children. I opened up my doors to about 30 kids and their families at the time. I was turning into Mary Poppins because I had to do something for these kids who have nowhere to go. So my house was the school for two years.

  Jenny McCarthy

  Children, School, Kids

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• For a seriously autistic kid, the best prognosis might be getting into a mainstream school without being too much of a shadow. For a moderately autistic kid the best prognosis is full recovery.

  Jenny McCarthy

  Recovery, School, Kids

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• It's absolutely imperative for the parents and the typical kids to have time by themselves, to go out to dinner or even go on vacation while someone else cares for the autistic child.

  Jenny McCarthy

  Children, Kids, Vacation

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• Certainly not everybody that is different is necessarily autistic, but there are a lot of undiagnosed people and it’s not necessarily something that needs to have attention to it, unless that person is feeling uncomfortable in the world or they need extra help or something.

  Jasika Nicole

  Extra Help, People, Feelings

  "HitFix Interview: Jasika Nicole talks ‘Fringe’". Interview with Daniel Fienberg, uproxx.com. October 14, 2010.

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• Autism is a neurological disorder. It's not caused by bad parenting. It's caused by, you know, abnormal development in the brain. The emotional circuits in the brain are abnormal. And there also are differences in the white matter, which is the brain's computer cables that hook up the different brain departments.

  Temple Grandin

  Parenting, Emotional, White

  "A Conversation with Temple Grandin". "Talk of the Nation" with Ira Flatow, www.npr.org. January 20, 2006.

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• This is what we know, when you tell us of your fondest hopes and dreams for us: that your greatest wish is that one day we will cease to be, and strangers you can love will move in behind our faces.

  Jim Sinclair

  Dream, Moving, Autism

  "Don't Mourn for Us". Autism Network International newsletter, "Our Voice", Volume 1, Number 3, 1993.

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