Funny, You Don't Look Autistic Quotes

“Having autism is like having too many tabs open on a computer. Or more accurately, it’s like trying to surf the web without an ad blocker. Every time you click on something, another window pops up.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“If music is the universal language, then awkward is the universal feeling.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“Having autism is a characteristic, not a character.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“I was taught how to “act normal.” I learned to hold the door for people. I learned to tell the truth, but to understand when it was okay to lie for politeness. I learned to use my manners, not to swear, to respect personal space, and to stop talking when it was time for somebody else to have a turn. And then I got to school. And I discovered that no one else had learned these things.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“Just because you don’t show what you’re feeling, doesn’t mean you aren’t feeling something.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“What we have to do is be understanding of one another, not judge others exclusively by our own experience, and, to quote my mom, shut up and listen.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“It's important to stand up to authority when it's corrupt, but it's also important to understand how it became corrupt in the first place, so you can better reason with them.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“Awkward. \ˈȯ-kwərd\. Adjective. A feeling of embarrassment, discomfort, or abnormality. If music is the universal language, then awkward is the universal feeling. Awkward works in mysterious ways. Sometimes it’s a handshake that was meant to be a high-five. Other times it’s telling the guy who works at the movie theater to enjoy the movie, too. Awkward comes in so many forms: meeting your girlfriend’s parents, getting socks as a birthday present, a friend request that turned out to be a computer virus, on and on and on.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“Friendship is deeper than having mutual interests. Friendship is setting aside time in your day to help someone forget about life for a while.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“It finally clicked that I can’t live my life getting hung up on the thoughts of a select few.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“some people think being autistic means you’re unable to perceive the thoughts and emotions of others. Actually, based on my experiences and from talking to other people on the spectrum, it’s quite the opposite: you feel every possible emotion and see every possible outcome of a social situation at once. It’s kind of like being Doctor Manhattan from the comic Watchmen: you’re seeing several timelines happening simultaneously. But unlike Doctor Manhattan, you can’t teleport to Mars every time you feel overwhelmed, so you shut down and remove yourself socially. People are exhausting, and when your brain is working overtime to try to understand them, it can suck the joy out of socializing.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“and if I bombed on my first time out, I might never want to do it again. I was still only thirteen, and I felt like my whole future was on the line.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“Routine means everything for us autistic folk, and breaking from it can be quite stressful.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“It was in this moment that I realized my quarrel would no longer be with schoolyard bullies; it would be with actual adults.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“had already acquired a performer’s ego, which is kind of like a stained-glass painting: begging to be looked at, but incredibly fragile.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“while saying things like “Oh, I hate loud noises, too” might be meant to make people feel included, it also potentially trivializes a person’s daily struggles.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“I was diagnosed with autism at the age of five. I wasn't diagnosed as a comedian until much later.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“kind of like a stained-glass painting: begging to be looked at, but incredibly fragile.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“It’s kind of like being Doctor Manhattan from the comic Watchmen: you’re seeing several time lines happening simultaneously. But unlike Doctor”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“It’s kind of like being Doctor Manhattan from the comic Watchmen: you’re seeing several time lines happening simultaneously. But unlike Doctor Manhattan, you can’t teleport to Mars every time you feel overwhelmed, so you shut down and remove yourself socially.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“Growing up in Orangeville, Ontario, a quaint, historic town about an hour outside of Toronto, we might have seemed like the picture of normalcy. If two out of the three of us were autistic, well, that was just part of our normal, too. Frankly, I’m not surprised that my little brother and I ended up on the spectrum. Our folks are both neurotypical, but if you smooshed their quirks together, you could see how they would produce an autistic child.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“was taught how to “act normal.” I learned to hold the door for people. I learned to tell the truth, but to understand when it was okay to lie for politeness. I learned to use my manners, not to swear, to respect personal space, and to stop talking when it was time for somebody else to have a turn. And then I got to school. And I discovered that no one else had learned these things.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“But with an ASD mind, you’re always trying to solve problems. When you see a problem, you fixate on it and try to resolve it.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“Introducing Team Spectrum As I noted in the previous chapter, the autism community is really strapped for heroic representation, at least on the comic book superhero front. I wish to rectify this. Introducing ... Before I go any further, I want to make it clear that I’m not going on some diatribe about how technology is the devil and it’s”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“Life is too short to be a chore, so why not say yes and have fun with it?”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“I’ve found many people with ASD have this in common: we obsess about the negative.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“We all look a little stupid sometimes.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“Despite our at-times-contradictory views, we bonded. We started going off script from the usual “How Are You Today?” social story and got down to talking about what really mattered: nerd stuff.”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“Not”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

“Smile!”
― Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum