13 quotes
I think all love is one-third projection and one-third acceptance and never more than one-third knowledge and insight.
Far from the Tree (2012)
People want to get better, but they don't want to change.
Far from the Tree (2012)
Any of us can be a better version of himself, but none of us can be someone else.
Far from the Tree (2012)
I wish the autistic child I have did not exist, and I had a different [nonautistic] child instead.
Far from the Tree (2012)
I started this book to forgive my parents and ended it by becoming a parent. Understanding backward liberated me to live forward.
Far from the Tree (2012)
Living with depression is like trying to keep your balance while you dance with a goat — it is perfectly sane to prefer a partner with a better sense of balance.
The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression (2001)
Insofar as I have written a self-help book, it is a how-to manual for receptivity: a description of how to tolerate what cannot be cured, and an argument that cures are not always appropriate even when they are feasible.
Far from the Tree (2012)
I want more than anything for my children to be happy, and I love them because they are sad, and the erratic project of kneading that sadness into joy is the engine of my life as a father, as a son, as a friend—and as a writer.
Far from the Tree (2012)
Difference unites us. While each of these experiences can isolate those who are affected, together they compose an aggregate of millions whose struggles connect them profoundly. The exceptional is ubiquitous; to be entirely typical is the rare and lonely state.
Far from the Tree (2012)
In the subconscious fantasies that make conception look so alluring, it is often ourselves that we would like to see live forever, not someone with a personality of his own.
Far from the Tree (2012)
Our children are not us: they carry throwback genes and recessive traits and are subject right from the start to environmental stimuli beyond our control. And yet we are our children; the reality of being a parent never leaves those who have braved the metamorphosis.
Far from the Tree (2012)
"I'm not responsible for my child and who she's become, but I am responsible to her, and she is a wonderful person. I love her. I don't know if you need to know anything else, but that's all I need to know." --Carol
Far from the Tree (2012)
A wise psychiatrist once said to me, "People want to get better, but they don't want to change." But I would propose that it is only by allowing people born with horizontal identities not to change that one allows them to get better. Any of us can be a better version of himself, but none of us can be someone else.
Far from the Tree (2012)