Brigette Lundy-Paine

“I was two years old when I did my first play.”

“My mom was a special-needs teacher for many years, so I knew her students. And one of my best friends from when I was growing up is a teacher for kids with autism now.”

“Instead of sports and all that other stuff, I did plays.”

“I think I really have 'Atypical' to thank for really teaching me about who I am.”

“When 'Atypical' came up, I knew it would be something very special and something that hasn't been done before.”

“Subtle Pride is an improvisational voice band.”

“I've learned that it comes in so many different shapes and sizes, and that communities with autism are extremely supportive of one another.”

“I don't really believe in monogamy as the concept that we make it out to be in the family structure.”

“I'd like to be on stage in New York.”

“What I find so special about acting - especially being female in this world, and growing up with such intense standards of how you should be - is that you can break those rigid models.”

“My parents are both artists, they had a theater company in the Bay Area for a long time called Virago. I never really had a choice - when I was two years old, I was the baby in a play that they did, and it kind of just happened naturally.”

“Most people think that it would be hard to be on a set or act for people with autism. But when you think about it, most people with autism use a script in their daily life to communicate in social situations, like at a restaurant, or you know, with a day-to-day conversation.”

“Instagram doesn't leave a lot of room for nuance.”

“I'm feeling in the earth a massive shift, in especially female consciousness, that is... slightly different than feminism. It feels like this mass reexamination of the stories we're being told.”

“I always imagined myself sitting on a ship. Diving in, catching a fish, putting the fish under the microscope, looking at it, categorising it, catching an alien, and saving the world.”

“I've yet to be put in a skimpy dress and asked to stand pretty. I hope I never will.”

“I love playing an old witch or a young boy. When I was younger, I would always volunteer to play the male lead.”

“People with autism are extremely good at working... in a scripted environment, because that's how they live their lives a lot of the time.”

“I was a shy kid. I didn't know how to talk to people my own age.”

“I've always felt that activism and art go hand in hand.”