Home / Authors / Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin Quotes

Professor

Temple Grandin is a professor of animal science and an autism advocate. Born on August 29, 1947, she has made significant contributions to the understanding of autism and animal welfare through her groundbreaking research. Grandin's innovative designs, such as the 'hug box,' have improved livestock handling practices. She is also an author and speaker, sharing her experiences and insights on autism and animal welfare with the world.

Filter quotes by topic

All Autism People Animal Thinking Autistic Ifs Kids Knows Children Dog

Famous Temple Grandin Quotes

“Language for me narrates the pictures in my mind. When I work on designing livestock equipment I can test run that equipment in my head like 3-D virtual reality. In fact, when I was in college I used to think that everybody was able to do that.”

Thinking Mind I Can Facts Reality Running Able Used Language Design College Tests Equipment Virtual Reality Livestock

Author:Temple Grandin

“Research is starting to show that a child should be engaged at least 20 hours a week. I do not think it matters which program you choose as long as it keeps the child actively engaged with the therapist, teacher, or parent for at least 20 hours a week.”

Thinking Should Children Long Matter Shows Parent Hours Teacher Week Research Program Starting Engaged You Choose Therapists

Author:Temple Grandin

“What I've tried to do is combine both my personal experiences with scientific research. I like to cross the divide between the personal world and the scientific world.”

World Research Crosses Divides Personal Experiences Scientific Research

Author:Temple Grandin

“What parents and teachers and caregivers did with me that actually worked and a lot of that was the old fashion 50s upbringing. They just gave the instruction when I did something wrong - life was more structured. So basically it's [my work] based on experiences with me that worked and it was teachers and parents that made me have those experiences.”

Made Parent Teacher Fashion Instruction Upbringing Caregivers Parents And Teachers Old Fashion Wrong Life

Author:Temple Grandin

“I can explain how a person with autism thinks. I am very, very interested in how people think. It's been a gradual process of learning more and more about how my thinking process is different. You know it's bottom up - you take specific examples to make concepts and then I put them in categories.”

People Thinking Knows Persons I Can Different Process Example Concepts Bottom Categories Autism Learning More Thinking Process

Author:Temple Grandin

“People need to learn how to work, learn how to support themselves. I think it's just fine to be eccentric.”

People Thinking Needs Support Fine Eccentric

Author:Temple Grandin

“It is important that our relationship with farm animals is reciprocal. We owe animals a decent life and a painless death. I have observed that the people who are completely out of touch with nature are the most afraid of death.”

People Important Nature Animal Decent Farms Animal Rights Our Relationship Reciprocal Afraid Of Death Painless Decent Life

Author:Temple Grandin

“Dogs serve people, but people serve cats.”

Book:Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals

Source: Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals

“Curiosity is the other side of caution.”

Sides Curiosity Caution

Book:Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior

Source: Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior

“People can live up to high standards, but they can't live up to perfection.”

People Standards Perfection High Standards

Book:Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior

Source: Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior

“Lets get into talking about how autism is similar animal behavior. The thing is I dont think in a language, and animals dont think in a language. Its sensory based thinking, thinking in pictures, thinking in smells, thinking in touches. Its putting these sensory based memories into categories.”

Thinking Language Memories Animal Talking Behavior Smell Categories Autism Sensory Animal Behavior

Author:Temple Grandin

“I think one of the worst things schools have done is taken out all of the stuff like art, music, woodworking, sewing, cooking, welding, auto-shop. All these things you can turn into careers. How can you get interested in these careers if you don't try them on a little bit?”

Ifs Thinking Trying Littles Art Done School Turns Stuff Bits Careers Taken Worst Little Bit Cooking Shops Worst Things Sewing Art Music Woodworking Welding

Author:Temple Grandin

“By looking at autistic kids, you can't tell when you're working with them who you're going to pull out, who is going to become verbal and who's not. And there seem to be certain kids who, as they learn more and more, they get less autistic acting, and they learn social skills enough so that they can turn out socially normal.”

Enough Seems Kids Certain Turns Social Acting Skills Normal Autistic Social Skills

Author:Temple Grandin

“People talk about curing autism. But if you got rid of all those traits, who's going to make the next computer?”

People Ifs Next Computer Traits Autism

Author:Temple Grandin

“I think a brain can be made "more thinking" or made "more emotional." At what point does this become abnormal? Autism in its milder variants, I think, is part of normal human variation.”

Thinking Humans Doe Made Brain Emotional Normal Autism Variation Abnormal

Author:Temple Grandin

“I tend to be much more in the present and my emotions are simpler. I can be happy, I can be sad, I can be depressed, but there's a complexity that I don't have. I don't brood the same way. Fear is my main emotion.”

Way I Can Emotion Complexity

Author:Temple Grandin

“What do I do when I go home? Work. That's basically my social life. I'm married to work.”

Home Social Married Social Life

Author:Temple Grandin

“I've got a lot of other people who do a lot of things for me, so I've gotten to a part in my career where I'm doing a lot of talks because I want to get kids turned on. I want to see these kids, these geeky nerdy kids, go out there and do something.”

People Want Kids Careers Nerdy

Author:Temple Grandin

“I'm seeing too many geeky, nerdy kids get addicted to video games and they're going nowhere. It's making me crazy.”

Kids Games Seeing Crazy Video Nerdy

Author:Temple Grandin

“People are getting too far away from the real-world. Politics is just ridiculous, it's totally dysfunctional.”

People World Real Ridiculous Real World Far Away World Politics

Author:Temple Grandin

“Language just gradually came in, one or two stressed words a time. Before then, I would just scream. I couldn't talk. I couldn't get my words out. So the only way I could tell someone what I wanted was to scream. If I didn't want to wear a hat, the only way I knew to communicate was screaming and throwing it on the floor.”

Ifs Way Want Two Wanted Language Communicate Hats Throwing Scream Stressed

Author:Temple Grandin

“Sometimes you have to go outside your field of study to find the right people.”

People Sometimes Study Fields

Book:Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals

Source: Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals

“From a scientific standpoint, Aspergers and autism are one syndrome. Aspergers is part of the autism spectrum, not a separate disorder.”

Disorder Autism Spectrum Standpoint Syndromes Aspergers

Author:Temple Grandin

“Medication should never be considered the only tool for helping a person.”

Should Persons Helping Tools Medication

Book:Developing Talents: Careers for Individuals with Asperger Syndrome and High-functioning Autism

Source: Developing Talents: Careers for Individuals with Asperger Syndrome and High-functioning Autism

“In my opinion, one of the greatest animal-welfare problems is the physical abuse of livestock during transportation.... Typical abuses I have witnessed with alarming frequency are; hitting, beating, use of badly maintained trucks, jabbing of short objects into animals, and deliberate cruelty.”

Use Problem Animal Opinion Objects Abuse Cruelty Welfare Hitting Typical Truck Deliberate Frequency Transportation Animal Welfare Physical Abuse Livestock

Author:Temple Grandin

“Engineering is easy - it's the people problems that are hard.”

People Hard Problem Easy Engineering

Author:Temple Grandin

“Autism's a very big spectrum. At one end of the spectrum, Einstein would probably be labeled autistic, Steve Jobs, half of Silicon Valley, you know, Van Gogh. And at the other end of the spectrum, you got much more severe handicaps where they never learn to speak.”

Knows Ends Bigs Jobs Speak Half Valleys Autism Severe Vans Spectrum Autistic Silicon Handicaps Silicon Valley

Author:Temple Grandin

“When kids are really little, they all look the same. No speech, no social relatedness, cannot emphasize enough the importance of early educational intervention.”

Looks Littles Enough Kids Social Speech Importance Educational Intervention

Author:Temple Grandin

“One of the places where research is needed is all the sensory problems. And you get sensory problems not just with autism, but with dyslexia, learning problems, ADHD, attention deficit, you know, things like sound sensitivity, problems with fluorescent lighting.”

Knows Problem Sound Attention Needed Research Autism Sensitivity Deficit Lighting Sensory Adhd Dyslexia

Author:Temple Grandin

“When I was younger, I didn't even realize the way I think visually is different.”

Thinking Way Different Realizing

Author:Temple Grandin

“I was nonverbal until I was four years old. Back in the 50s, I was the kind of kid they used to just put away in an institution. But then you get the milder autism where there's no speech delay, but they're socially awkward. Those kids were around when I was a child. They were just called geeks and nerds.”

Years Kind Children Kids Used Four Speech Institutions Four Years Awkward Autism Delay Nerd Geek Nonverbal Socially Awkward

Author:Temple Grandin

“In the 50s and 60s, kids were taught how to shake hands. They were taught how to have manners. There needs to be a lot more of that kind of stuff because the autistic mind doesn't pick up social things and subtle cues.”

Needs Mind Kind Hands Kids Social Stuff Taught Picks Manners Shakes Subtle Autistic

Author:Temple Grandin

“People on the autistic spectrum tend to get fixated on what they think.”

People Thinking Spectrum Autistic

Author:Temple Grandin

“I'd rather see a kid get fixated on something they can turn into a career.”

Kids Turns Careers

Author:Temple Grandin

“I'd rather have a kid come up to me and tell me that he loves dinosaurs or he loves airplanes or he likes training dogs or I like Shakespeare. I mean, just something.”

Mean Kids Dog Training Come Up Likes Airplane Dinosaurs

Author:Temple Grandin

“I'm seeing too many smart kind of socially awkward kids, a lot milder than I was, not getting employment because they're not learning job skills.”

Kind Kids Jobs Seeing Skills Smart Employment Awkward Socially Awkward

Author:Temple Grandin

“I'm seeing too many kind of socially awkward kids that get through schools and then they can't hold a job because they haven't learned the discipline of get up in the morning.”

Kind Kids School Jobs Morning Seeing Havens Discipline Get Up Awkward Socially Awkward

Author:Temple Grandin

“The people that were socially awkward from my generation, they all had paper routes and that taught them the discipline of work.”

People Generations Taught Discipline Paper Awkward Routes My Generation Socially Awkward

Author:Temple Grandin

“I can remember being bullied and teased. It was absolutely horrible. I got kicked out of ninth grade for throwing a book at a girl who teased me. It was absolutely terrible.”

I Can Book Remember Girl Terrible Horrible Grades Throwing Bullied Being Bullied Ninth Grade

Author:Temple Grandin

“Us visual thinkers like me, be good at things like industrial design, graphics, art, those kind of jobs.”

Kind Art Jobs Design Be Good Like Me Visuals Thinker Industrial Design

Author:Temple Grandin

“Half of Silicon Valley's got a little bit of autism.”

Littles Bits Half Little Bit Valleys Autism Silicon Silicon Valley

Author:Temple Grandin

“In fact, there are autism clusters, you know, around some of the big tech centers. You take two socially awkward computer programmers and put them together, that can kind of concentrate the autistic genes.”

Knows Kind Two Facts Bigs Together Computer Genes Awkward Autism Programmers Autistic Computer Programmers Clusters Socially Awkward

Author:Temple Grandin

“You take somebody - one person has definitely got autism, you got another person that maybe has some of those traits and maybe there's some anxiety, depression, some epilepsy or something in the family history. Put them together, you're more likely to have a severely autistic kid than if you don't have any neurological problems in the family history.”

Ifs Persons Problem Kids Together Anxiety Traits Autism Autistic Family History Epilepsy Anxiety Depression

Author:Temple Grandin

“I think that the definition of autism is too broad. You got to remember, autism definition is a behavioral profiling.”

Thinking Remember Definitions Broads Autism

Author:Temple Grandin

“These diagnostic profiles like depression, ADHD, autism, dyslexia, it's half science and the other half is a committee of doctors bickering over what it should be, and it has changed. It's not precise like a diagnosis of tuberculosis would be very precise.”

Should Would Be Half Changed Doctors Autism Committees Precise Diagnosis Profile Other Half Adhd Bickering Dyslexia Tuberculosis

Author:Temple Grandin

“One of the big areas I'd like to see a lot more research done on is the sensory problems, and it's real variable. One kid's got sound sensitivity; another one can't tolerate fluorescent lights. I can't stand scratchy clothes.”

I Can Real Done Problem Bigs Light Kids Sound Clothes Research Areas Tolerate Sensitivity Variables Sensory

Author:Temple Grandin

“One of the things I want to do is be a decent role model. I've got a lot of emails and stuff from children. They look up to me. Kids get different labels and things like that and I want those kids to succeed.”

Want Looks Children Different Kids Stuff Roles Succeed Models Labels Decent Look Up Role Models Email

Author:Temple Grandin

“I'm seeing too many kids where they get fixated on their own autism. I'd rather have them get fixated that they like programming computers or they like art or they want to sing in the church choir or they want to train dogs, you know, something that they can turn into a career.”

Knows Want Art Kids Turns Church Careers Seeing Dog Computer Train Programming Autism Choir Church Choir

Author:Temple Grandin

“Autism's an important part of who I am, but I'm a college professor and an animal scientist first. And I wouldn't want to change 'cause I like the logical way I think.”

Thinking Way Want Firsts Important Causes Animal College Scientist Who I Am Logical Professors Autism College Professors

Author:Temple Grandin

“My life - autism's an important part of it, but it bothers me when I see kids where autism and their autism is the only thing they think about. I'd rather have them think about, you know, some art work they were gonna do or some science they wanted to do.”

Thinking Knows Art Important Kids Wanted Bother Autism

Author:Temple Grandin

About the Author

Born: August 29, 1947
Known for: Professor
Quotes: 225

Related Topics

Autism People Animal Thinking Autistic Ifs Kids Knows Children Dog

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for AnimalsRelated source material

Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal BehaviorRelated source material

Thinking in PicturesRelated source material

The Way I See It, Revised and Expanded 2nd Edition: A Personal Look at Autism and Asperger'sRelated source material

Thinking in Pictures, Expanded Edition: My Life with AutismRelated source material

Developing Talents: Careers for Individuals with Asperger Syndrome and High-functioning AutismRelated source material

The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the SpectrumRelated source material

The Way I See it: A Personal Look at Autism & Asperger'sRelated source material

The Way I See it: A Personal Look at Autism and Asperger'sRelated source material

Similar Authors

Stuart DuncanBrowse related quotes
Stephen WiltshireBrowse related quotes
John DonvanBrowse related quotes
Jenny McCarthyBrowse related quotes
Morton Ann GernsbacherBrowse related quotes
Jerry NewportBrowse related quotes
Gerald FischbachBrowse related quotes
Allan SnyderBrowse related quotes
Manny AlvarezBrowse related quotes
Jacquelyn JablonskiBrowse related quotes