I feel very strongly that if you got rid of all of the autistic genetics you're not going to have any scientists. There'd be no computer people. You'd lose a lot of artists and musicians. There'd be a horrible price to pay.

People need to learn how to work, learn how to support themselves. I think it's just fine to be eccentric.

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

I would never talk just to be social. Now, to sit down with a bunch of engineers and talk about the latest concrete forming systems, that's really interesting. Talking with animal behaviorists or with someone who likes to sail, that's interesting. Information is interesting to me. But talking for the sake of talking, I find that quite boring.

People wouldn’t have become who we are today if we hadn’t coevolved with dogs.

In special education, there's too much emphasis placed on the deficit and not enough on the strength.

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.