Autie Quotes

This is a blog for quotations from autistic people. Posting a quote doesn't always mean agreement, I'm trying to show diversity of both experience and opinion among autistic people.

[autiequotes]

"The FUTURE IS OFTEN BLINDING for eighteen-year-olds, blinding with unending BRIGHTNESS AND POSSIBILITY, or blinding with a potential to SCORCH AND BURN." -Liane Holliday Willey (emphasis mine)

[autiequotes]

"If you're bold as bold And sure as sure I'll hold a mirror at the door You can answer as I knock and see You are only as human, as human as me" -Donna Williams, "Icon I Am", Not Just Anything (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2004)

[autiequotes]

"Why did they say she was lost in her own world when her own world was the only place she wasn't lost in?" -Judy Endow

[autiequotes]

“Complexity is a jealous secret my brain won’t let me in on.” -Donna Williams

[autiequotes]

“The world can be a bitter place of bitter winds that chill your soul, but to turn away from what causes pain is to close the world out, beauty and all.” -Donna Williams

When I started coming out of the delirium, it meant I felt more pain because I was more in the real world and was about to have a nasty stomach virus take over my body. But at some point I made a conscious choice that the real world was better than being trapped in a waking nightmare and possibly dying. So I chose reality. This reminds me of that. It took everything in me to fight the urge to run away again.

[autiequotes]

"I never got bored with nature, I befriended the earth and everything on it that wasn't breathing." -Georgiana Thomas, Overcoming Autism

[autiequotes]

Because I could see that all these kids were weird and even they didn’t accept me, I knew I was the strangest one of all.

Sean Barron, There’s A Boy In Here

Describing what happened to him in institutions.  I once attempted to describe this phenomenon in a book review of someone autistic who’d managed to make a lot of friends in institutions.  I was trying to just say our experiences had been different, but he somehow managed to take it as an insult, and to get his blog followers to write about how wonderful he was for being able to do something I hadn’t been able to do.  Which, of course, made me feel even worse: Other autistic people were able to make friends in institutions, so why were such experiences so few and far between for me? Was I defective somehow, even for an autistic person?  Was I showing how i wasn’t the right kind of autistic person, the kind who in their teens could somehow manage to make friends because they were so sweet and nice? 

I wasn’t sweet and nice, I was weird and strange and sticking out in all the wrong directions.  And many times, I would come to a mental institution and within seconds everyone would judge me to be the ward outcast.  I’ve talked to lots of autistic people who had this experience.  It turns out it’s not rare after all, and it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with us, it just means we’re not among the rare autistic people who do manage to make lots of friends in such places.  And they aren’t better than us, and we aren’t better than them, we’re just different.  But it took me a long time to be able to see this, especially with grown parents of autistic children, who should’ve known better, harping on a very young adult autistic person for saying hir experiences were different than someone else’s.

[autiequotes]

I am a small piece of the universe observing itself.

==Anne, Existence is Wonderful

I love this.  I love this and I can't say why, I just do.

[autiequotes]

I got so good at wearing out my welcome, that when I was homeless and broke, the people I was couch-surfing with would actually buy me long-distance train tickets to make sure I left town and never came back.

paraphrased from an anonymous autie warning me what would happen to me if I wasn't careful

[autiequotes]

Despite my exhaustion, my brain has always worked best when I first open my eyes in the morning. That is the time of the day when I have all my thoughts, dreams, plans, and inspirations. I suspect it is the time of day I can function best because no one has yet pissed me off.

Jeannie Davide-Rivera, Twirling Naked in the Streets and No One Noticed

If you liked this quote, you might want to read the author's website, reviews on Goodreads, or editions in paperback, Kindle, and audio book:

Author's Website

Goodreads: Twirling Naked in the Streets and No One Noticed

Amazon, Paperback: Twirling Naked in the Streets and No One Noticed

Amazon, Kindle Edition: Twirling Naked in the Streets and No One Noticed

Audible, Audio Book, Unabridged: Twirling Naked in the Streets and No One Noticed

This is my first post to this blog, I encourage you to read the about page to learn what it's about.  But basically it's quotes, of any kind, on any topic, from autistic people (diagnosed or not, anywhere on the spectrum), in  public writing or speaking or songwriting, that just happened to catch my eye.  I don't have to agree with the content of the quote, or agree with the author on any matter at all, in order to post a quote here.  Being echolalic, storing quotes is kind of my brain's specialty, so I've been looking forward to doing some kind of blog along these lines for a long time.  And I'd ideally like this to get some more exposure out there for little-known writers.

Some quotes may have long commentary.  Some may have no commentary at all.   Feel free to skip over my commentary altogether and just pay attention to the quote, if that's what you want to do.

This quote?  I found it relatable for certain periods of my life, and hence funny.