“The reason why [the medical community] is reluctant to talk about it is because there’s such a huge business in pharmaceuticals.”

I didn’t have to work out before 35 but now I have to.

I guess now that I think back, I used to play priest and be a funny priest. I don’t know, I grew up in such a Catholic family that I kind of liked to test the boundaries a little bit and I think I had fun watching my mom laugh.

I’m so scared girls look at my breast implants and think, ‘To get boys, you need big boobs.’ I tell them, ‘Don’t get it done. Those fears go away. You develop other insecurities, but breasts aren’t one of them.’ I want to get them half-size.

I tried a few times, unsuccessfully, to lose weight. It wasn’t until I joined Weight Watchers that I was finally able to do it. I went to meetings and my son came with me. The best thing was that I could eat what I wanted and still lose weight. Slow and steady, I was getting my pre-pregnancy body back.

A talk show is difficult because the formula is always the same: there’s a host and there’s guests. Really what you can change is only so much. So, I don’t have any pre-interviews, which forces real conversation.

Those outside of autism need to understand this is an epidemic and we need more government funding, insurance coverage and education reform.

Craziest thing I’ve done for love is getting married. I think it’s crazy. I think it’s crazy, crazy, crazy. I’m never going to say I wouldn’t do it again but I have to make sure it’s love and not settling for the ‘I have to do this by a certain age,’ which is kind of what I did.

For a seriously autistic kid, the best prognosis might be getting into a mainstream school without being too much of a shadow. For a moderately autistic kid the best prognosis is full recovery.

I look at autism like a bus accident, and you don’t become cured from a bus accident, but you can recover.

Google is one of the most incredible breakthroughs that we have today. Yes, it can scare a lot of patients, thinking we’re all dying because we look up something on Google. But there’s also a lot of anecdotal information from parents, firsthand accounts of what they did for their own child.

All those girls who were mean to me[in high school], I pay them back by going through the drive-through window and asking for my burger. That feels really great.

It’s absolutely imperative for the parents and the typical kids to have time by themselves, to go out to dinner or even go on vacation while someone else cares for the autistic child.

I can’t even begin to tell you how many casting couches I was attacked on. Not just by casting people, but by stars.

I figured out something spiritual. Billboard this: ‘Life is supposed to be fun!’

I have my once-a-month nachos, but it’s soy cheese and turkey chili on it, so it’s somewhat safe. But it’s still a big vice for me, because I have a big bowl of it.

I don’t really go out much at all. But there are times when I’m like, ‘I gotta get out.’ Then we go to Vegas, and we’ll gamble.

Without a doubt in my mind, I believe that vaccinations triggered Evan’s autism.

If you give us a safe vaccine, we’ll use it. It shouldn’t be polio versus autism.

Those outside of autism need to understand this is an epidemic and we need more government funding, insurance coverage and education reform.

I look at autism like a bus accident, and you don’t become cured from a bus accident, but you can recover.

Without intervention today, the cost of care for adults with autism will be significantly greater and the burden will no longer lie with the parents, but on our entire society.

What is missing from today’s dialogue is the effect autism is having on families, our society and what the unknown factors are. The 300lb. gorilla in the room is that our children with autism today will soon become adults with autism.

I did want to acknowledge and confirm the fact that my son does, indeed, have an autism diagnosis.

Autism doesn’t have to define a person.