“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.”

I’m the worst person to tell anybody how to date.

I usually have my protein at lunch and my carbs at night – I don’t mix protein and carbs.

When I was a little girl, rocking my little dolls, I remember thinking I would be the world’s best mom, and so far I’ve done it.

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

I’m the comedic girl next door and a lot of fun.

The University of Google is where I got my degree from.

People don’t see this side of me. They don’t know I read, like, 800 million spiritual books. Lately I am just really getting into a lot of spirituality.

You totally value and respect your body as you get older.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.