Quotes from Temple Grandin

In a noisy place I can't understand speech, because I cannot screen out the background noise.

Neither living nor learning was good without order.

Children who are visual thinkers will often be good at drawing, other arts, and building things with building toys such as Legos.

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

One of my sensory problems was hearing sensitivity, where certain loud noises, such as a school bell, hurt my ears. It sounded like a dentist drill going through my ears.

When I was in high school and college, I thought everybody could think in pictures. And my first inkling to my thinking was even different was when I was in college and I read an article about, you know, some scientist said that the caveman could not have designed tools until they had language.

I have been on the same dose of anti-depressants for 15 years, and my nerves still go up and down in cycles; but my nerves are cycling at a lower level than they were before.

The world needs different kinds of minds to work together.

If you start using a medication in a person with autism, you should see an obvious improvement in behavior in a short period of time. If you do not see an obvious improvement, they probably should not be taking the stuff. It is that simple.

I obtain great satisfaction out of using my intellect.

Who do you think made the first stone spears? The Asperger guy. If you were to get rid of all the autism genetics, there would be no more Silicon Valley.

If I did not have my work, I would not have any life.

The people that were socially awkward from my generation, they all had paper routes and that taught them the discipline of work.

I was fascinated with optical illusions.

Autism is an extremely variable disorder.

Children between the ages of five to ten years are even more variable. They are going to vary from very high functioning, capable of doing normal school work, to nonverbal who have all kinds of neurological problems.

I've been on antidepressants for years, and it worked to stop my anxiety and didn't limit creativity. Some of the best work I've done, in fact, is after I started taking the antidepressants.

My life is basically my work.

I've got my one area I work in and I want to educate people about autism and I also want to improve, you know, animal handling and transport and make a real change out in the field on the ground.

What do I do when I go home? Work. That's basically my social life. I'm married to work.

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

People talk about curing autism. But if you got rid of all those traits, who's going to make the next computer?

There's no black and white dividing line between a mild Aspergers, which is the mild autism, and computer engineer, for example.

Autism is part of who I am.