“There's a misperception that autism is some thief in the night that takes a normal child and places an autistic child in its place. That's not true.”

“The first child is also loved, when he is still the only child and there is the absence of someone who can take his place.”

“You didn't lose a child to autism. You lost a child because the child you waited for never came into existence. That isn't the fault of the autistic child who does exist, and it shouldn't be our burden. We need and deserve families who can see us and value us for ourselves, not families whose vision of us is obscured by the ghosts of children who never lived. Grieve if you must, for your own lost dreams. But don't mourn for us. We are alive. We are real. And we're here waiting for you.”

“Only a child had its place on the cross, and that was enough for me [to paint his Crucifixions, earlier].... in the exact sense there was no cross but a blue child in the air. The cross interested me less.”

“A woman told me her child was autistic, and I thought she said artistic. So I said, 'Oh great. I'd like to see some of the things he's done.”

“The time is — time. The place is anywhere.
The voices speak to you across the air
To say that once again a child is born.
A child is born.”

“When a parent denies a child its “parent time,” that parent is denying the child its child support -- its psychological child support.”

“A lot of what you see on the internet with people who claim to have autism is a very distorted and unrealistic view of what autism really is. You can spot these people by the absolute pride they have in their condition. They say autism is the best thing ever and some of them even say it places above the general population and makes them better or superior in some way.”

“Let us not forget what befits our present state in the pursuit of vain fancies. Mankind has its place in the sequence of things; childhood has its place in the sequence of human life; the man must be treated as a man and the child as a child. Give each his place, and keep him there. Control human passions according to man's nature; that is all we can do for his welfare. The rest depends on external forces, which are beyond our control.”

“A flower can't choose the place where it blooms, and a child can't choose the parents she's born to”