8 Quotes & Sayings By Dave Cullen

Dave Cullen is a New York Times bestselling author and the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Columbine and A Prayer for the City, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He is also the author of several other nonfiction books, including The Lost Hero of America's War on Drugs, The Stranger Beside Me, and The Last Days of the American Republic. He is currently senior writer at Rolling Stone, where he covers human rights and social justice issues.

1
One thoughtful Evangelical pastor said he approved of using the massacre for recruitment, as long as it was truly done for God. He bristled at "spiritual headhunters, just racking up another scalp. The Bible was never meant to be a club, " he said. "If I'm using it as a weapon, that's really sad. Dave Cullen
2
What good were special talents when there was no one to share them with? Dave Cullen
3
The goal with hostages is to gradually lower expectations; in nonhostage crises, it's to lower emotions. Dave Cullen
4
You can't really teach a kid anything: you can only show him the way and motivate him to learn it himself. Dave Cullen
5
From the Basement tapes Eric outdid Dylan with the apologies. To the untrained eye, he seemed sincere. The psychologists on the case found Eric less convincing. They saw a psychopath. Classic. He even pulled the stunt of self-diagnosing to dismiss it. "I wish I was a fucking sociopath so I didn't have any remorse, " Eric said. "But I do." Watching that made Dr. Fuselier angry. Remorse meant a deep desire to correct a mistake. Eric hadn't done it yet. He excused his actions several times on the tapes. Fuselier was tough to rattle, but that got to him." Those are the most worthless apologies I've ever heard in my life, " he said. It got more ludicrous later, when Eric willed some of his stuff to two buddies, "if you guys live."" If you live?" Fuselier repeated. "They are going to go in there and quite possibly kill their friends. If they were the least bit sorry they would not do it!. Dave Cullen
6
Reverend Don Marxhausen disagreed with all the riffs on Satan. He saw two boys with hate in their eyes and assault weapons in their hands. He saw a society that needed to figure out how and why - fast. Blaming Satan was just letting them off easy, he felt, and copping out on our responsibility to investigate. The "end of days" fantasy was even more infuriating. Dave Cullen
7
The final portrait is often furthest from the truth. Dave Cullen