Chris Crutcher
Chris Crutcher

It's hard to imagine my life not writing. I love it.

Chris Crutcher
Chris Crutcher

I have no personal agenda in whether or not a library keeps 'Whale Talk' or 'Athletic Shorts' or any of my books shelved.

Chris Crutcher
Chris Crutcher

The kids you turn your backs on when you take away their stories are the ones who lose, as well as you as a community of adults who may appear to fear their truths.

Chris Crutcher
Chris Crutcher

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
Chris Crutcher

A sport has its own built-in integrity - doesn't need an artificial one.

Chris Crutcher
Chris Crutcher

If I have any complaints about my youth... one is that many well-meaning adults lied to me. Not spiteful lies with malicious intent but lies designed to prevent emotional and psychological pain - lies told by the people who cared about me most: my parents, teachers, relatives.

Chris Crutcher
Chris Crutcher

The frustration for a parent is that you might be available all the time, but the kid may approach you only about 10% of the time.

Chris Crutcher
Chris Crutcher

If we are to stop bullying in schools, we have to start with teachers and administrators. If we want to stop it, we have to stop it.

Chris Crutcher
Chris Crutcher

If we're going to make a real dent in the bullying issue, we're going to have to address the bullies themselves: find ways to help empower them that don't include allowing them to be predators or to simply be punished.

Chris Crutcher
Chris Crutcher

Nothing about life is sacred until we make it so.

Chris Crutcher
Chris Crutcher

As much as we'd like to think life is sacred, there's not a lot of evidence for that. The universe is maddeningly casual, giving and taking it.

Chris Crutcher
Chris Crutcher

My years as a therapist working with abuse and neglect families taught me at least one important lesson for my own life. Never judge until you can see through the eyes of that person you are judging, and then... never judge.

Chris Crutcher
Chris Crutcher

In 2004, one of my books, 'Whale Talk,' was chosen as an all-school read in Fowlerville, Michigan, a rural town not far from Detroit. They had done what I thought was a brilliant and innovative thing: decided to teach the book in every discipline, sophomores through seniors.

Chris Crutcher
Chris Crutcher

When I turned 50, I realized I was now going to start counting backwards in terms of the years I had left. Then I turned 60, and I just stopped counting. I don't have a fear of death, but I have an awareness that there's a time limit.

Chris Crutcher
Chris Crutcher

If you've seen 'Friday Night Lights' - that was just like my town.

Chris Crutcher
Chris Crutcher

I want to look at this character from all points of view. I know I don't want to make them all good or all bad or all anything... the story itself often helps create the character.

Chris Crutcher
Chris Crutcher

I was pretty anti-academic, and I wasn't much of a student. I had a really short attention span and did not get a lot out of high school academically. I think college was a little the same way.

Chris Crutcher
Chris Crutcher

My early life had a lot to do with my origins as a writer, but I didn't get into doing any writing at all until I was about 35 years old.

Chris Crutcher
Chris Crutcher

It seems to me if you don't know anything about child development you shouldn't intimate in your 'reporting' that you do.

Chris Crutcher
Chris Crutcher

I can't think of a subject that is taboo for me, unless it's one I simply don't know anything about.