Alex Zanardi Quotes

I was told that I would be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life.

I feel bad for people in wheelchairs and people who have to use crutches.

The flesh and bone leg is just beautiful. It's elegant. You know, when it's working, it's incredible. But if it's not working, well, you know, your life is certainly far from over.

It would be nice to wake up and be able to walk to the bathroom. But even when I was 20 and at the Paris Opera, I had to crawl down the stairs; it is only when I start to work and stretch that my body begins to recover again.

I was actually in an iron lung for about a year, and then I was paralysed from the neck down for another year after that. So I spent a lotta time just lying down as a kid. And some of my earliest memories from then are of listening to the radio.

Towards the end of 2003 it was hard to get through training - and the darkest point was when a doctor told me there was a possibility I could end up in a wheelchair.

I think it was hard at first for my dad to transition to being immobile.

The worst part about being so small is that I always have to rely on someone. I can't go anywhere on my own, so I'm always dependent. I can't run or walk too fast. If I was taller for a day, I'd just go off on my own independently.

It's factual to say I am a bilateral-below-the-knee amputee. I think it's subjective opinion as to whether or not I am disabled because of that. That's just me.

I am not the paraplegic seated permanently in his chair or the able-bodied person on her feet. Identity for a hemiplegic is a shifty thing.

If we see someone in a wheelchair, we assume they cannot walk. It may be that they can walk three, four, five steps. That, to them, means they can walk.

My mother, Laura Sumner, had cerebral palsy. She was born absolutely fine, but after about three days, she started having convulsions that left her with a condition that would confine her to a wheelchair her entire life.

I've had versions of disability my whole life, first with my hearing and then when I couldn't walk for over a year.

I did not walk for the first four years of my life.

When I was injured after 'Kill Bill' I had a year where I not just couldn't make any money but I couldn't swim, I couldn't surf, I could hardly run, which is insane. I couldn't do gymnastics, martial arts, I could barely crawl on all fours. That was devastating to me.

By far, the most disabling thing in my life is the physical environment. It dictates what I can and can't do every day.

The hardest thing for me is walking. Can you imagine you've got a metal pole and if you put pressure on it like a strong walk, you can walk.

I do not want medical men to discuss whether or not my work is valuable, because I know what it will do. I want them to tell me how best this new knowledge of rapidly restoring paralysed people to health and strength can be applied where it is needed.

You can really do amazing things in a wheelchair. It's very dangerous if you don't know what you're doing, but you can even go up and down stairs in a wheelchair.

There is nothing to be said for being crippled. You don't see the world better or clearer, nor do you develop some special set of skills by way of compensation.

There is just so very much I can't do. I don't drive, for one.

On the first day I got my wheelchair, I was also given all my clothes for the next day, a little pile on the chair. I was so proud of myself for getting it all on - the socks and everything. Dressing is a struggle, and it can take up to an hour and a half.

I fell and broke my pelvic bone in three places. So, I'm still sort of an invalid now.

I can't bear the thought of my mother having to push me around in a wheelchair. I'd rather die quickly.

Then I got a bad back injury, and they thought I wasn't going to have any feeling in my legs.