“When in doubt, play the waiting game. Watch for an opening.”

Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War

“A fellow didn’t call up a girl on the evidence of a smile and introduce himself this way.”

Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War

“Everybody has to do things in this world they don’t want to.”

Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War

“Anything that can make you cry and send a teacher away – tip him over the borderline – that’s more than just fun and games.”

Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War

“It was good to have people hate you – it kept you sharp. And then when you put the needle in them, the way he did constantly to Obie, you felt justified, you didn’t have to worry about your conscience.”

Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War

“Watching girls and devouring them with your eyes – rape by eyeball – was something you did automatically.”

Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War

“His mother didn’t realize that eating wasn’t something you did separately. Eating went along with whatever you happened to be doing at the time. You could eat doing anything. Well, almost anything.”

Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War

“And he did see – that life was rotten, that there were no heroes, really, and that you couldn’t trust anybody, not even yourself.”

Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War

“Were teachers like everyone else, then? Were teachers as corrupt as the villains you read about in books or saw in movies and television?”

Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War

“No one is without error. And it’s understandable.”

Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War

“Did you ever hear a teacher admit that it’s possible for him to make a mistake, David? Ever hear that before?”

Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War

“Yes, yes, we are all too human. We have our good days and bad days. We get tired. Our judgment sometimes becomes impaired. We sometimes – as the boys say – goof. It’s possible even for us to make mistakes correcting papers, especially when the answers are not cut and dried, not one thing or another, not all black nor all white…”

Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War

“One thing students don’t always realize, David, one thing they don’t grasp is that teachers are human too.”

Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War

“There is an invisible line between teacher and students and it must not be crossed.”

Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War

“The world was made up of two kinds of people – those who were victims and those who victimized.”

Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War

“Peace, let’s have peace.”

Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War

“Talk, talk, talk – that’s all everybody ever heard in school.”

Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War

“There was nothing more beautiful in the world than the sight of a teacher getting upset.”

Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War

“He turned away. He didn’t want to be a mirror of his father. The thought made him cringe. I want to do something, be somebody. But what? But what?”

Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War

“Wasn’t each man different? Didn’t a man have a choice?”

Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War