No Atlantis is too underwater or fictional.

You may not have a physical impairment, but you have things, whether it's finances, self-esteem, it doesn't matter. It's cut from the same cloth.

Writing was not my medium. I preferred to do video.

The most important thing is to have the conversation, and let people who do make mistakes feel comfortable enough to continue the conversation.

We'd done a couple of road trips with my big chair, and it was such a hassle if we didn't have the van with the foldout ramp. I figured: There's got to be some option that I can use on the go. Now I can go anywhere with my friends, which is a big, life-changing thing. I can sit on it for as long as I need to.

We did a book signing and people came up to me. There was an expectant mother who was like, "I think we might name our child Zach because of your work."

You really just have to have a good attitude, challenge yourself, and you can accomplish great things.

When I read the script [of Glee], the whole premise was that all the high school kids were being cruel to this kid in the wheelchair, and then the quarterback comes along and has a heart of gold and takes him out of a Porta Potty. That's too often what I see in media, that the characters with disabilities are there to make other people seem like heroes for treating the character with a disability with respect. Those are the kinds of roles that are out there.

If everything was perfect, it would always be a person-first conversation, but whenever I have the opportunity, I lead with my personality. If they're looking and seeing the disability first or the chair first, I know that I have the ability to change that.

I think that's where it comes into play, when you are just looking at a document or whatever and you see the word "disability." Does that automatically trigger something in you that denies someone their personhood?

You can never walk a mile in someone elses shoes, but you can walk a mile in your own and be proud of it.

There's a tendency to treat anyone with a physical disability as inspiring. I call it a pedestal of prejudice, in that you're lifting people up to dismiss them. My whole thing is bringing us down to everyone else's level and saying we're all the same. The struggle is the same.

CP is a struggle, but it's also been quite the tool for me to find success and deliver a message. It's something about me that's unique, so it'll open a few doors as well as keep a few closed. If you have the other tools that you develop as an individual, talents, things like that, you can harness this to do positive things in the world.

You want the world to be set up for you, but sometimes it just isn't.

“If a man’s thoughts are muddy, If he is reckless and full of deceit, How can he wear the yellow robe? Whoever is master of his own nature, Bright, clear and true, He may indeed wear the yellow robe.”

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.”

“There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.”

“What you think, you become. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine, you create.”

“Avoid evil deeds as a man who loves life avoids poison.”

“To abstain from lying is essentially wholesome.”

“Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.”

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”

“Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.”

“The trouble is, you think you have time.”