Dyslexia — in the best of cases — forces you to develop skills that might otherwise have lain dormant… It also forces you to do things you might otherwise never have considered. ~Malcolm Gladwell

Today, I bring you quotes from 10 famous people who speak about their dyslexia.

• Barbara Corcoran (Inspirational Speaker & Investor on Shark Tank)

“My burning desire to prove that I was not stupid, is the key to why I was so successful and continue to be.”

• Henry Winkler (The Fonz from Happy Days)

“Not every child learns the same way. I could not learn through my eyes. Reading was impossible. Math, to compute it in my mind, was impossible. I learned everything through listening… How we learn has nothing to do with how brilliant we are.”

• Toyah Wilcox (English Musician, Actress & TV Presenter)

“Growing up with dyslexia and struggling in the classroom because of it, I know how infuriating and frustrating it can be to be treated wrongly as though you’re of below par intelligence.”

• Tim Tebow (Quarterback & Heisman Trophy winner)

“You can be extremely bright and still have dyslexia. You just have to understand how you learn and how you process information. When you know that, you can overcome a lot of the obstacles that come with dyslexia.”

• Charlotte McKinney (Model & Actress, Fantasy Island)

“Whenever people talk about dyslexia, it’s important to know that some of the smartest people in the world, major owners of companies, are dyslexic. We just see things differently, so that’s an advantage. I just learn a different way; there’s nothing bad about it.”

• Andrae Crouch (Award Winning Gospel Musician)

“I have dyslexia, and I never did learn to read music, and I even had a problem in reading because everything was turned upside down, so I just had to draw from the lyrics and the voice that I would hear in my mind.”

• Patricia Polacco (Award Winning Children’s Author & Illustrator)

“I didn’t learn to read until I was almost 14 years old. Reading out loud for me was a nightmare because I would mispronounce words or reconstruct things that weren’t even there. That’s when one of my teachers discovered I had a learning disability called dyslexia. Once I got help, I read very well!”

• Richard Wigan (British Micro-Sculptor)

“I started making houses for ants because I thought they needed somewhere to live. Then I made them shoes and hats. It was a fantasy world I escaped to where my dyslexia didn’t hold me back and my teachers couldn’t criticize me. That’s how my career as a micro-sculptor began.”

• Marcia Brissett-Bailey (Speaker, Author & Co-founder of the British Dyslexia Association Cultural Perspective Committee)

“My dyslexia has always been part of my narrative. It’s taught me patience, resilience, and empathy. It’s important to understand that being different is nothing to be ashamed of – it’s something to be proud of.”

• Philip Schultz (American Poet, Founder/Director of The Writer’s Studio in New York City)

“Dyslexia lends itself to original thinking, not rote formulas, because you can’t do the formulas – you think up your own method based on intuition and instincts. Creativity is trial and error, trying to figure out a way to do something emotionally and intuitively.”