Tourette Quotes & Sayings

The two diseases also seem to share a neural component. The symptoms of Tourette's apparently arise from impaired inhibition in the circuit linking the cortex and the basal ganglia-a circuit that is also impaired in OCD. The basal ganglia, you'll recall from Chapter 2, play a central role in switching from one behavior to another. Impairment there could account for the perseveration of obsessions and compulsions, as well as the tics characteristic of Tourette's. — Jeffrey M. Schwartz

Ethan seemed to revel in Carter's most hated tics. He'd set them to music. The light bounce of notes, starts and stops, of Ethan's song, it was the music of Carter's Tourette's, and Ethan had made it beautiful. He'd made Carter feel beautiful for having them. — Ryan Loveless

Some people with Tourette's have flinging tics- sudden, seemingly motiveless urges or compulsions to throw objects ... (I see somewhat similar flinging behaviors- though not tics- in my two year old godson, now in a stage of primal antinomianism and anarchy) — Oliver Sacks

Dr. Sacks treats each of his subjects - the amnesic fifty-year-old man who believes himself to be a young sailor in the Navy, the "disembodied" woman whose limbs have become alien to her, and of course the famous man who mistook his wife for a hat - with a deep respect for the unique individual living beneath the disorder. These tales inspire awe and empathy, allowing the reader to enter the uncanny worlds of those with autism, Alzheimer's, Tourette's syndrome, and other unfathomable neurological conditions. "One of the great clinical writers of the 20th century" (The New York Times), Dr. Sacks brings to vivid life some of the most fundamental questions about identity and the human mind. — Oliver Sacks

Manchester United could have any goalkeeper in the world. I was a 23-year-old kid from New Jersey who, from an early age, had to cope with Tourette's Syndrome, a brain disorder that can trigger speech and facial tics, vocal outbursts and obsessive compulsive behavior. — Tim Howard

The first expert said he had attention deficit disorder. The second expert said the first was out of order. One said he was autistic, another that he was artistic. One said he had Tourette's syndrome. One said he had Asperger's syndrome. And one said the problem was that his parents had Munchausen syndrome. Still another said all he needed was a good old-fashioned spanking. — Pseudonymous Bosch

I had a Tourette's period. And obsessive compulsive disorder. Things would get in my brain that I couldn't get out of my brain. — Richard Ford

Harb was a ticking time bomb. It was like watching a preacher with Tourette syndrome. You knew the "Shit! Balls!" was coming at some point during the sermon, probably while he was slapping you on the forehead during a faith healing. — John Corwin

Unlike the female of John's fantasies, this one spiked way high on the feminine scale and suffered from hair-related Tourette's, a condition that manifested itself in incessant — J.R. Ward

Yo, yo, yo, check it out, said PJ, with enough hand gestures that any deaf person watching would have thought he had ASL Tourette's syndrome — Christopher Moore

Birds are and always have been reincarnated old men with Tourette's syndrome having somehow managed to dupe the reproductive saga. They fuck each other and tend to their home repairs and children while never missing their true mission. To scream at the top of their lungs in horrified hellish rage every morning at daybreak to warn us all of the truth. They know the truth. Screaming bloody murder all over the world in our ears, but sadly we don't speak bird. — Kurt Cobain

The rhythm of music is very, very important for people with Parkinson's. But it's also very important with other sorts of patients, such as patients with Tourette's syndrome. Music helps them bring their impulses and tics under control. There is even a whole percussion orchestra made up exclusively of Tourette's patients. — Oliver Sacks

Tourette's is just one big lifetime of tag, really. The world (or my brain
same thing) appoints me it, again and again. So I tag back. Can it do otherwise? If you've ever been it you know the answer. — Jonathan Lethem

Living with Tourette's is not easy. — Tim Howard

Do you ever stop talking?" I say. "Seriously, it's like you have a superarticulate form of Tourette syndrome. — Matthew Norman

You may notice when arguing with someone on the left that every time you begin to make a point, that leftist begins shouting about George W. Bush. It's like Leftist Tourette's Syndrome. "Why did Obama blow out the budget?" "BUUUUUUUSHHHH!!!!! — Ben Shapiro

God, sit by the freak, why don't you."
"Excuse me, do you have Tourette's?"
"What?"
"Tourette's Syndrome. It's a neurological disorder that causes people to say things they don't really mean. Do you have it?"
"No."
"Oh, so you were being purposely rude."
"I wasn't calling YOU a freak."
"I'm aware of that. That's why I'm only going to break ONE of your fingers after school, instead of all of them. — Meg Cabot

I had a slight touch of Tourette's, which means you talk to yourself and bark and cry out at night. — Dan Aykroyd

It's amazing how a conversation between two moms ends up sounding like a battle between people with Tourette's. — Heather Balog

I've got Tourette's, practically. I'll tell anyone anything. — Helena Bonham Carter

I've have a number of violent tics. With Tourette syndrome, there's not just compulsive actions, but compulsive thoughts as well. That used to scare my mother a lot. — Dash Mihok

Context is everything. Dress me up and see. I'm a carnival barker, an auctioneer, a downtown performance artist, a speaker in tongues, a senator drunk on filibuster. I've got Tourette's. My mouth won't quit, though mostly I whisper or subvocalize like I'm reading aloud, my Adam's apple bobbing, jaw muscle beating like a miniature heart under my cheek, the noise suppressed, the words escaping silently, mere ghosts of themselves, husks of empty breath and tone. — Jonathan Lethem

You want me and I want you. right?"
Who did she think she was? You can't just go around blurting out the truth like a prophet with Tourette's Syndrome. He said, "Well, I guess. Yeah, that's right. — Christopher Moore

Bad impulse buys make you feel grim, don't they? It's like having consumer Tourette's. I gravitate towards austere foreign-language film DVDs when insecure. — Sally Phillips

Tourette's syndrome is seen in every race, every culture, every stratum of society; it can be recognized at a glance once one is attuned to it; and cases of barking and twitching, of grimacing, of strange gesturing, of involuntary cursing and blaspheming, were recorded by Aretaeus of Cappadocia almost two thousand years ago. Yet it was not clinically delineated until 1885, when Georges Gilles de la Tourette, a young French neurologist - a pupil of Charcot's and a friend of Freud's - put together these historical accounts with observations of some of his own patients. The syndrome as he described it was characterized, above all, by convulsive tics, — Oliver Sacks

I have the embarrassing thing where often if you're watching a film, you kind of go through the emotions and the thought stages that your character went through, but you sort of do it with Tourette's. So I end up often crying when I'm crying, and looking angry when I'm looking angry, so it's pretty ugly. — Cate Blanchett

You duck! You flying yellow duck! And you took this long to tell me?! When Sarah gets excited, random animals pop into her speech like she has an Old MacDonald Had a Farm kind of Tourette syndrome. — Jandy Nelson

My wife will automatically quote and compare the price of diesel at every petrol station we drive by, like she's got oil-based Tourette's. — Ian Watson

The columnist gives these words to the longings of an 11-year-old he meets with Tourette's syndrome: Wisdom is encoded in our common language. We all have, to some extent, a complex, sometimes adversarial, relationship with our physical selves. And I more than most people know that it is correct to say,'I have a body.' There is my body, and then there is ME, trying to make it behave. — George F. Will

This Tourette's center sent me a package that was like 900 hundred pages. — Robin Tunney

Having Tourette's is wild, like being drunk all the while. Being on Haldol is dull, makes one square and sober, and neither state is really free ... You 'normals', who have the right transmitters in the right places at the right times in your brains, have all feelings, all styles, available all the time
gravity, levity, whatever is appropriate. We Touretters don't: we are forced into levity by our Tourette's and forced into gravity when we take Haldol. You are free, you have a natural balance: we must make the best of an artificial balance. — Oliver Sacks

I made odd noises as a child. Just did weird things, like turn off light switches twice. I think my parents thought I had Tourette's syndrome. — Johnny Depp

There's a film I did called 'Front of the Class', about a teacher who had Tourette's. That was a beautiful blend of drama and comedy. There's some great moments of levity in the script. — James Wolk

Once you understand that someone has Tourette and that they can't help their tics, it takes away the distraction. And you can engage your compassion. You feel for them. You embrace them. — Dylan McDermott

Patients with various other types of movement disorders may also be able to pick up the rhythmic movement or kinetic melody of an animal, so, for example, equestrian therapy may have startling effectiveness for people with parkinsonism, Tourette's syndrome, chorea, or dystonia. — Oliver Sacks

You know what worries me? Interacting with the kids. I'm afraid that's when my Tourette's will kick in. — Scott Thompson

Genuine pathological openness is about as seductive as Tourette's Syndrome. — David Foster Wallace

If I didn't know better, I'd think I suffer from some sort of Tourette's-autism hybrid, but Dr. Pat insists I can control the impulse to say whatever pops into my head. That it's, like, a defensive mechanism, not a biological imperative. Therapists think everything is a defense mechanism. Just my thinking that in my head, right now, is a defense mechanism. — Corey Ann Haydu

Life is what you make of it, unless you have tourette's, in which case much becomes involuntary. — Dov Davidoff

You can't just go around blurting out the truth like a prophet with Tourette's syndrome. — Christopher Moore

I try and tell all the kids that I meet that hope to be amazing one day and be a professional athlete or a doctor or a lawyer or whatever they want to be. I tell them they can do all that because Tourette's won't stop them. — Tim Howard

Lionel Essrog, the twitching, barking, gabbling narrator of Jonathan Lethem's new novel, 'Motherless Brooklyn,' is no movie-of-the-week novelty grafted onto a noir mystery. Maybe his Tourette's is a gimmick, but it's a gimmick with depth, with soul. — Gary Krist

Second, the Tourette's patient cannot not do it: they cannot use free — David Eagleman

I don't want to be myself, ever. I'm terrible at a snapshot. Terrible. I blink all the time. I've got facial Tourette's. Unless I'm working and in that zone, I'm not very good at pictures, really, — Kate Moss

I think people would be suprised at how much we curse when we screw up. I'm like somebody with Tourette's Syndrome. — George Eads

As soon as things get serious in front of the goal, I don't have any twitches ... It's probably because at that moment, my concentration on the game is stronger than the Tourette syndrome. — Tim Howard

I think of myself as someone with a kind of Tourette's. I cannot help saying the thing you're not supposed to say. — Francine Prose

What's with the poverty Tourette's? Why do these two think we need a hobo for president? — Jon Stewart

People believe that if you can shut your Tourette's off for a period of time, then you can always shut it off. I try to explain to people that if I spent my whole life trying to control my tics, that's all I would have time for. — Dash Mihok

Suddenly, I developed an acute case of Tourette's syndrome, Fuck! That fucking-shit-son-of-an-ass-monkey-dick-weasel! — Christine Zolendz

If I woke up and didn't have Tourette's syndrome, it would feel weird - not better or worse, just different. — Tim Howard

He has achieved what Nietzsche liked to call 'The Great Health' - rare humour, valour, and resilience of spirit: despite being, or because he is, afflicted with Tourette's. — Oliver Sacks

A soap opera character on the bar TV says, "You killed him, you smothered him with doughnuts!" Another character, another scene--she is sitting in a room with a man and an elderly woman--the leas character wonders if she's dead. The man says, No, you're alive," and the other woman hands her a plate of doughnuts.
A commercial comes on. A couple are on a date and the woman's voice-over articulates interior thoughts of what a wonderful guy her friend has set her up with: "He's so cute, and his IQ is higher than my bank balance . . . but she didn't tell me he has . . . Tourette's syndrome. — David Byrne

Insomnia is a variant of Tourette's
the waking brain races, sampling the world after the world has turned away, touching it everywhere, refusing to settle, to join the collective nod. The insomniac brain is a sort of conspiracy theorist as well, believing too much in its own paranoiac importance
as though if it were to blink, then doze, the world might be overrun by some encroaching calamity, which its obsessive musings are somehow fending off. — Jonathan Lethem

So God wants you to marry the girl who believed I was a Frenchman suffering from hemorrhoidal Tourette's? — John Green