Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it. – Vincent van Gogh.

I can’t divorce Kent and his art from what causes pain in Kent’s life. This is true in the lives of many individuals labeled ADHD. Their greatest gifts are interwoven with their greatest weaknesses. This might be true for all of us. But we can make something beautiful from this paradox. Our lives can sometimes be a sort of poem – part genetics, part individual adaptation.

Education is one of the most beautiful and liberating things we can pursue in our lives, but too often it is approached as a restrictive, punitive, linear, and moralistic act.

I wonder if we recognize the irony of telling people to act normal, because to act is to perform a role that isn’t real. And I wonder if we truly understand what it does to a human being to tell them to pretend to be someone, or something, they are not, and how this demand requires people to repress, efface, and cover up who they really are.

Don't split. Sticking it out can mean the difference between a rough time and an utter failure. (pg. 143)

Reading is about enjoying yourself and learning about the human experience, so go for it. (pg. 155)

Fiction has no right answers, and reading fiction is not about getting things right. (pg. 154)

The cold reality is that much of the valuable information relevant to our intellectual, personal, and academic development is locked within the covers of books in the code of written language. (pg. 144)