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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. "

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" 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

Think

Attention

College

" The premise of 'Deadline' forced me to go against my own grain with a character determined to find all that is valuable in that time. I believe this is a story about redemption; how, even with the best intentions, it's sometimes found and sometimes not. "

" I think the value in books like mine, and a great number by other talented writers, is in the ability to bring dark subjects into the open where they are not so dark, where they can be talked about and considered by teens and adults alike. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" Certainly working with teens keeps me up to date with language and with certain kinds of thinking. I often feel like I have to go back to that 17-year-old Chris Crutcher, and that forms the core voice. I can draw on teens from 1964 to 2001 to find a part of the voice I need. "

Chris Crutcher

Language

Thinking

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" By the time a kid goes to college, if he's taking math or science, at least he knows, or you hope he knows, some basics. But if you're teaching history in college, you have a lot of damage to undo. You basically have to start over because so much of what a kid has already learned is just wrong. "

" I am for anything that makes teens visible in an honest way... in other words, anything that represents them the way they are, positively or negatively. "

Chris Crutcher

Words

Way

" 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. "

" You have to be careful not to use anything too colloquial or you date the book. "

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

" Any writer my age almost can't get away from being influenced by Kurt Vonnegut, partially because of his simple, clear way of stating things. To read Vonnegut is to learn how to use economy words. "

" 'Deadline' is the story of a young man forced to discover who he is, and what's important in life, during the short span of his senior year in high school. "

" 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. "

" 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

People

Intent

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

" 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. "

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

Chris Crutcher

Know

Anything

" 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

Your

Know

" 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. "

" Nothing about life is sacred until we make it so. "