No amount of effort could have stopped that, because our points of view - the way we perceive things - are inextricably linked to our beliefs, ... ,our beliefs color what we see. Chris Crutcher More Quotes by Chris Crutcher More Quotes From Chris Crutcher ...racist thought and action says far more about the person they come from than the person they are directed at. Chris Crutcher racist racism action ...we can say we love each other if my life is better because you're in it and your life is better because I'm in it. Chris Crutcher love-each-other ifs life-is I have made a career of creating characters who fight school authority and chomp at the bit to get out into the 'real' world and live their lives, mostly because that's the kind of teenager I was. Chris Crutcher teenager real school I think when you’re dying you start looking for important things in the corners. You can’t let anything that seems even semi-important pass, because it passes forever. Things take on meaning. Chris Crutcher important forever thinking Adopted. Big Deal; so was Superman Chris Crutcher deals adoption bigs Something about the joy and pain of that moment, something about the excruciating contrast, made me feel that no matter what happens now, my life has been worth it. What a ride. Chris Crutcher pain matter joy I believe there was a big bang and that because of that we are all connected into infinity, and I know very little having to do with human beings that doesn't also have to do with connection. Chris Crutcher bangs connections believe You put yourself out there in the truest way you can and hope others do the same. You'll connect or you won't, but you did what you could. It's like playing ball in some way. There are guys on the team, like Cody, I'd give my life for. But you have to be willing to lay down your life for all of them if you want to put the best you on the field. Every guy on that field has to believe you'll bring nothing back off the field with you. Chris Crutcher team giving believe I figure if Doc is right about the time I have left,I should wrap up my adolescence in the next few days, get into my early productive stages about the third week of school, go through my midlife crisis during Martin Luther King Jr's birthday, redouble my efforts at productivity and think about my legacy, say, Easter, and start cashing in my 401(k)s a couple weeks before Memorial Day. Chris Crutcher memorial-day easter kings Being an outsider means not being heard, not having a voice. It means being treated as a second-class citizen, being diminished in the eyes of others. We have all felt this way at one time or another, but some feel it more consistently. Unfortunately, our schools often do not embrace the talents of many of their occupants. Chris Crutcher eye mean school You put yourself out there in the truest way you can and hope others do the same. You'll connect or you won't, but you did what you could. Chris Crutcher truest putting-yourself-out-there way I don't think I'll ever lose the feeling that I had when I read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' - Harper Lee was going back into her childhood. I grew up in a real small town - Lee's was in the South, mine the Northwest - but small towns have a lot in common. There was such a revelation in knowing that a story could be told like that. Chris Crutcher knowing real thinking Sometimes a book is better than it ever had a right to be because of the history the reader brings to the reading and because of the methods educators use to bring a particular story alive. Chris Crutcher reading stories book It's a scary thing; moving on. Part of me wishes life were more predictable and part of me is excited that it's not. I think it's impossible to tell the good things from the bad things while they're happening. Chris Crutcher scary moving thinking Nothing exists without its opposite. Chris Crutcher opposites Censors can make a case for zero tolerance in language. They can make the argument that since we don't allow our children to use that language in schools, we also shouldn't give them stories in which it is used. Chris Crutcher zero children school So you didn’t tell me it was a messed-up idea to keep this all a secret because. . .” “Because experience is the only teacher,” Hey-Soos says. “Even if I could have told you, it would have been a lecture. Why do you think kids don’t listen to their parents, or people don’t leave churches and do what the preacher tells them? There’s only one thing that’s universal.” “What’s that?” “The truth. Chris Crutcher teacher kids thinking I'd rather be a flash than a slowly burning ember. Chris Crutcher embers burning flash But the truth doesn't need to be known, or believed, to be true. Chris Crutcher being-true known needs If you were to look at each atom as a universe unto itself, think of the number of universes within each of us. Chris Crutcher atoms numbers thinking