Dena Napoli

“Criticizing people, winding them up, making idiots of them or fooling them doesn't make people with autism laugh. What makes us smile from the inside is seeing something beautiful, or a memory makes us laugh. This generally happens when there's nobody watching us. And at night, on our own, we might burst out laughing underneath the duvet, or roar with later in an empty room ... When we don't need to think about other people or anything else, that's when we wear our aural expressions.”
― Naoki Higashida, The Reason I Jump: the Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism

“The apple tree in the background, just barely visible, was stretching a single limb out to her, as if wanting to be in the photo with her.”
― Sarah Addison Allen, First Frost

“All happiness depends on courage and work.”
― Honoré de Balzac

“True compassion is about not bruising the other person’s self-respect.”
― Naoki Higashida, The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism