Michael J. Fox Books

Optimism, for me, wasn’t a refuge—it was a rebellion. When I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991, the immediate impulse was to withdraw, to protect privacy, to pretend it wasn’t happening. The world knew me as Marty McFly, the guy who could travel through time unscathed; I was terrified that show...

From Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist

Leaving full-time acting was not a dramatic final act—it was quiet, uncertain, and tinged with grief. I loved the rhythm of sets, the unpredictability of comedy, the discipline of learning lines. Yet Parkinson’s demanded a new tempo. When I realized that my physical condition could be an amplifier f...

From Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist

I grew up in Edmonton and later Burnaby, British Columbia, in an ordinary household filled with the rhythms of a working-class family. My father was a sergeant in the Canadian forces; discipline and duty were part of his nature. My mother balanced that with warmth and humor, the kind of person who c...

From Lucky Man: A Memoir

Los Angeles in the late 1970s was not the stuff of dreams for a broke eighteen-year-old without a safety net. I had no car, no agent, and barely enough rent money for a few weeks. There were times when I lived off peanut butter sandwiches and counted the days before I would have to pack up and go ho...

From Lucky Man: A Memoir