Chinese Handcuffs Quotes

“Comedy is tragedy standing on its head with its pants down.”
― Chris Crutcher, Chinese Handcuffs: A Young Adult Novel About Confronting Painful Secrets, Grief, and Finding the Courage to Survive

“Dillon, all you have in this world, really, are your responses to it. Responses to your feelings and responses to what comes in from outside. You know how adults are always trying to get you to take responsibility? That's all responsibility is, responding to the world, owning your responses. It isn't about taking blame or finding out if something's your fault.”
― Chris Crutcher, Chinese Handcuffs: A Young Adult Novel About Confronting Painful Secrets, Grief, and Finding the Courage to Survive

“Remember the first time your dad tried to teach you to drive on ice? How when the car started to slide you had to turn into the side while every nerve in your body said to turn the other way? I think life is like that a lot, way more than we know. And I think love is particularly like that. We think we're supposed to fight for it when we're really supposed to let go; you know, turn into it.”
― Chris Crutcher, Chinese Handcuffs: A Young Adult Novel About Confronting Painful Secrets, Grief, and Finding the Courage to Survive

“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.”
― Chris Crutcher, Chinese Handcuffs: A Young Adult Novel About Confronting Painful Secrets, Grief, and Finding the Courage to Survive