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41 " ...the Magnificent Seven consisted of one swimmer of color, a representative from each extreme of the educational spectrum, a muscle man, a giant, a chameleon, and a one-legged psychopath. When I envision us walking seven abreast through the halls of Cutter High, decked out in the sacred blue and gold, my heart swells. "
― Chris Crutcher , Whale Talk
42 " If you think your life sucks, it probably does. Do something about it. "
― Chris Crutcher , Angry Management
43 " 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 , Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
44 " I believe there is important shit to be dealt with. "
45 " Well, let me make something perfectly clear (as Richard Nixon says on those old news clips about the Watergate scandal, right before he's about to fill the room with fog)I am not immortal. I've spent more than ten hours in the psych ward with Sarah Byrnes--really and truly the toughest person in our solar system--and I'll tell you what, if life can shoot Sarah Byrnes ot of the sky, it can nail me blindfolded. "
46 " These kids up here, they act like the toughest kids in in the world, just like me, but this is the first time I've ever seen under that toughness--in anybody else or in me. I'm really scared, because if I'm going to have a life, I'm going to have to act different, and I don't know if I can. "
47 " The only truly ruined people are those who believe they are. "
― Chris Crutcher , Deadline
48 " Love, in the universal sense, is unconditional acceptance. In the individual sense, the one-on-one sense, try this: 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. The intensity of love is weighed by how much better." -Deadline "
― Chris Crutcher
49 " Then hearing Elvis today made me think I didn't have a lot to bitch about, but when I said that to Mr. Nak after group, he said, "Don't get to thinkin' just because some other guy's sinkin' in horse manure, the stuff up around your neck is chocolate puddin'. A wound is a wound, young Brewster. Remember that. Don't diminish the pain of your own just because you see some other gut-shot cowboy bleedin' to death. "
― Chris Crutcher , Ironman
50 " 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? "
51 " He doesn't believe butt time on planet Earth doesn't neccessarily makes you wise. "
52 " The longer I wait the more reasons I can think of why it means something other than what I thought it meant when I first read it. "
53 " 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. Once I thought being a fat kid was the worst thing that could possibly be, but if I hadn't been fat I would never have known Sarah Byrnes--I mean Sarah--and that would have been a true tragedy in my life. And what is a worse thing than living like she lived for all those years? Nothing I can think of, but someday some kid in a group home somewhere in Kansas--chronicled in LIFE magazine more than five years ago--may be touched by her courage, and I guarantee that will change his or her life forever. "
54 " I know the answer to the question now, by the way: why bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. It came from my inner editor, the part of me that forces the wordy writer in me to dump ninety percent of all modifiers: Ask both questions again, minus the adjectives."Why do things happen to people?"Just because. "
― Chris Crutcher , King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography
55 " Does anyone in this room have it?""No, Chris, no one here has it.""How do you know?""Because the mark was dark skin. Negroes are the descendants of Cain."I didn't have my civil-rights sensibilities yet, but I was starting to get a bad feeling about God.... "
56 " There’s only one thing to say to the censors: Shut up. "
57 " See, Mr. Nak'll be talking about how anger comes creeping up, hoping you're not paying attention so it can trick you into something really embarrassing or degrading, and before you know it he's got you thinking about your life, or worse, talking about it. He keeps asking what seem like harmless questions, and it almost seems safe to answer them. Next thing you know you're ready to say something you thought you'd never tell anybody. "
58 " 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. "
59 " Tonight sometime the full reality will dawn on him, but he's like me: the guy you want at the site where the plane went down. "
60 " Sometimes I wish I could have religion their way. You know, no responsibilities in life but to cut down people who don’t think the way you do. "