The most important thing people did for me was to expose me to new things.

I don't define myself as autistic first. I don't want to be a professional autistic. I think it's important to have a real job.

I can remember being bullied and teased. It was absolutely horrible. I got kicked out of ninth grade for throwing a book at a girl who teased me. It was absolutely terrible.

Sometimes we forget about common sense. Autism is used too much as an excuse for bad behavior.

Fear was my main emotion until I started taking anti-depressant medication. And I was one of the people where, as I got older, the fear got worse and worse. So I can really relate to an animal getting, you know, scared and traumatized.

People on the autism spectrum don't think the same way you do. In my life, people who made a difference were those who didn't see labels, who believed in building on what was there. These were people who didn't try to drag me into their world, but came into mine instead.

Nature is cruel but we don't have to be