To be brutally honest, for much of that time, I was the only person in the world with Parkinson's. Of course, I mean that in the abstract. I had become acutely aware of people around me who appears to have the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, but as long as they didn't identify with me, I was in no rush to identify with them. My situation allowed, if not complete denial, at least a thick padding of insulation.

If you fixate on the worst-case scenario and it actually happens, you’ve lived it twice.

I can't always control my body the way I want to, and I can't control when I feel good or when I don't. I can control how clear my mind is. And I can control how willing I am to step up if somebody needs me.

By the time I entered high school, I had forsaken academics altogether in favor of my burgeoning acting career.

Since I'm not sure of the address to which to send my gratitude, I put it out there in everything I do.

He gave life to the breath- oxygen, a simple gas, he transferred into words, ideas, hope.

If one of my kids reads a book for school and I can have a conversation with her about the book and I sense that she gets what the book is about, then it doesn't really matter to me if she gets an A on the paper.