Out of My Mind Quotes

“Words have always swirled around me like snowflakes—each one delicate and different, each one melting untouched in my hands.”

“I’m always amazed at how adults assume I can’t hear. They talk about me as if I’m invisible . . . I learn quite a bit this way.”

“I don’t think they get paid very much, because they never stay very long. But they should get a million dollars. What they do is really hard, and I don’t think most folks get that.”

“I have never spoken one single word. I am almost eleven years old.”

“By the time I was two, all my memories had words, and all my words had meanings. But only in my head. I have never spoken one single word.”

“Everybody uses words to express themselves. Except me. And I bet most people don’t realize the real power of words. But I do.”

“Sometimes people never even ask my name, like it’s not important or something. It is. My name is Melody.”

“Maybe I’m not so different from everyone else after all.”

“I wondered if she would teach able-bodied third graders the same way. Probably not. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got.”

“It’s like somebody gave me a puzzle, but I don’t have the box with the picture on it. So I don’t know what the final thing is supposed to look like. I’m not even sure if I have all the pieces . . . Even though I usually know the answer to most of the questions at school, lots of stuff still puzzles me.”

“For the first time, instead of ‘pretend’ grades that teachers would give me because they weren’t quite sure if I knew the answer or not, I get real grades recorded in the teachers’ grade book that are based on actual answers I’ve given. Printed out and everything!”

“Here’s the thing: I’m ridiculously smart, and I’m pretty sure I have a photographic memory. It’s like I have a camera in my head, and if I see or hear something, I click it, and it stays.”

“All of us who have all our faculties intact are just plain blessed. Melody is able to figure out things, communicate, and manage in a world where nothing works right for her. She’s the one with the true intelligence!”

“I still couldn’t get over the fact that I was part of the team. Okay. Truth. There was the team, and there was me, and we were in the same room. But we weren’t quite a team. They appreciated the fact that I usually got the answers right but . . . lots of the preparation involved fast-and-furious, back-and-forth discussions, and I had trouble adding anything to what was being said—most of the time.”

“We all have disabilities. What’s yours?”

“But slowly, slowly, I felt my body rolling to the right. And then, unbelievably, plop! I was on my stomach. I was so proud of myself, I screeched.”

“Your life is not going to be easy, little Melody . . . If I could switch places with you, I’d do it in a heartbeat. You know that, don’t you?”

“I know the NAME of her condition, Doctor . . . But a person is so much more than the name of a diagnosis on a chart!”

“It’s like I live in a cage with no door and no key. And I have no way to tell someone how to get me out.”

“Talk. I pointed to my board. I hit the word again and again. Talk. Talk. Talk. I have so much to say.”