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Chris Crutcher

Chris Crutcher Books

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Whale Talk

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“Since then I have searched for my heroes among small-t truths. I always find them among people learning the art of acceptance: not acceptance of defeat or acceptance of some inability to influence their own futures, but rather acceptance of life on the planet, acceptance of the grays rather than the black-and-whites, acceptance of the astonishing range of human emotion and human behavior.”

Human NatureAcceptanceBehaviorEmotionsHeroesTruths
Book:King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography – The Riveting, Laugh-Out-Loud Funny Young Adult Coming-of-Age Memoir
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“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....”

GodReligionChristianityBlack PeopleRace RelationsRace And Racism In AmericaCainWhite People
Book:King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography – The Riveting, Laugh-Out-Loud Funny Young Adult Coming-of-Age Memoir
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“As a child abuse and neglect therapist I do battle daily with Christians enamored of the Old Testament phrase "Spare the rod and spoil the child." No matter how far I stretch my imagination, it does not stretch far enough to include the image of a cool dude like Jesus taking a rod to a kid.”

ChildrenReligionJesusChristianityNeglectChild AbuseOld TestamentSpiritual Abuse
Book:King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography – The Riveting, Laugh-Out-Loud Funny Young Adult Coming-of-Age Memoir
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“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.”

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Author:Chris Crutcher
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“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.”

IfsThinkingShouldSchoolNextLeftEffortWeekStageFiguresCoupleKingsThirdsCrisisProductivityLegacyProductiveAdolescenceEasterLutherWrapsMemorialMemorial DayMidlifeMidlife Crisis
Author:Chris Crutcher
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“I walk outside and scream at the top of my lungs, and it maybe travels two blocks. A whale unleashes his cry, and it travels hundreds or even thousands of miles. Every whale in the ocean will at one time or another run into that song. And I figure whales probably don't edit. If they think it, they say it...Whale talk is the truth, and in a very short period of time, if you're a whale, you know exactly what it is to be you.”

IfsThinkingKnowsTwoRunningSongWalksCryFiguresPeriodsOceanMilesBlockOne TimeScreamBe YouLungsEditsWhales
Author:Chris Crutcher
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“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.”

IfsWayWantGivingBelieveGuyTeamFieldsWillingBallsLaysTruestPutting Yourself Out There
Author:Chris Crutcher
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“...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.”

MenHeartColorMy HeartWalkingGoldBlueSacredSevenEducationalExtremesGiantsMusclesHallsRepresentativesMagnificentSpectrumPsychopathSwimmerChameleonCuttersMagnificent SevenBlue And Gold
Book:Whale Talk
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“We get crazy when we can't make things be like the world tells us they are". She looked back out the window. "It was that way for me and your brother, I think. I mean, how could I have loved him that last year? I didn't even know who he was. He was way more attracted to drugs and bikers and that whole lifestyle than he was to me. But somebody told me that if you really loved somebody,you stayed with him no matter what. You had to fight for him." She laughe. "Hell, I was convinced.”

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Author:Chris Crutcher
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“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.”

WayFeelsMeanEyeSchoolFeltVoiceClassHeardTalentCitizensEmbraceTreatedOne TimeOutsidersConsistentlySecond Class Citizens
Author:Chris Crutcher
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“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.”

ThinkingRealStoriesFeelingsLosesCommonKnowingChildhoodMinesGrewGrew UpTownsSouthRevelationsSmall TownHarperMockingbirdKill A MockingbirdGrowing Up In A Small Town
Author:Chris Crutcher
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