“Sometimes a book is better than it ever had a right to be because of t...” — Chris Crutcher Quote

“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.”

“He tries to force the anger down, but it's like an anvil on his chest. He closes his eyes, like Sammy taught him, and forces the anvil up; he softens.”

“Certainly working with teens keeps me up to date with language and with certain kinds of thinking.”

“My first book, 'Running Loose', was censored back in 1983 or '84. Every book I've written since has been censored somewhere.”

“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.”

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

“Competition is something that brings you to the next level because if you have no competition, and you know you are starting week in, week out, it takes a little bit of the quality.”

“I think sometimes having change is good because it just brings you something new and something fresh that maybe you didn't know that you needed, or you didn't know that it would work out as well as it ends up working out.”

“The wing of the Falcon brings to the king, the wing if the crow brings him to the cemetery.”

“Most disability charity hinges on that notion - that you need to send your money in quick before all these poor, pitiful people die. Peddling pity brings in the bucks, yo.”

“I loved 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.' I read it later as an adult, but I loved 'We Have Always Lived in a Castle.' And that brings you around to 'The Lottery.' You can't pretend - it's a lottery in which you draw a name and people die. That's a short story, but it's such an incredible short story.”