Daniel Keyes

I__ __xceptional_- a democratic term used to avoid the damning labels of __ifted_ and __eprived_ (which used to mean __right_ and __etarded_) and as soon as __xceptional_ begins to mean anything to anyone they__l change it. The idea seems to be: use an expression as long as it doesn__ mean anything to anybody. __xceptional_ refers to both ends of the spectrum, so all my life I__e been exceptional.

I just want to be smart like other pepul so I can have lots of frends who like me.

Its easy to make frends if you let pepul laff at you.

Thank God for books and music and things I can think about.

A child may not know how to feed itself, or what to eat, yet it knows hunger.

Intelligence and education that hasn't been tempered by human affection isn't worth a damn.

A short while ago I foolishly thought I could learn everything - all the knowledge in the world. Now I hope only to be able to know of its existence, and to understand one grain of it.

I thought: 'My education is driving a wedge between me and the people I love.' And then I wondered: 'What would happen if it were possible to increase a person's intelligence?'

I am afraid. Not of life, or death, or nothingness, but of wasting it as if I had never been.

I pray God it is the answer I want, but if not I will accept any answer at all and try to be grateful for what I had.

Ordinary people, she said, can see only a little bit. They can't change much or go any higher than they are, but you're a genius. You'll keep going up and up, and see more and more. And each step will reveal worlds you never even knew existed.

What an incredible thing! How much less they had than other human beings. Mentally retarded, deaf, mute - and still eagerly sanding benches.

The universe was exploding, each particle away from the next, hurtling us into dark and lonely space, eternally tearing us away from each other - child out of the womb, friend away from friend, moving from each other, each through his own pathway towards the goal-box of solitary death.

Every part of me is attuned to the work. I soak it up to my pores during the day, and at night - in the moments before I pass off into sleep - ideas explode into my head like fireworks.

I was afraid it would come to this, but I have no patience with her now. I'm jealous of every moment away from the work - impatient with any one who tries to steal my time.

The answer can't be found in books - or be solved by bringing it to other people. Not unless you want to remain a child all your life. You've got to find the answer inside you - feel the right thing to do. Charlie, you've got to learn to trust yourself

It's a strange sensation to pick up a book you read and enjoyed just a few months ago and discover you don't remember it.

Other people had something I lacked something denied me. In my mental blindness, I had believed it was somehow connected with the ability to read and write, and I was sure that if I could get those skills I would have intelligence too.Even a feeble-minded man wants to be like other men. A child may not know how to feed itself, or what to eat, yet it knows hunger.