“The Columbine crisis was never a hostage standoff. Eric and Dylan had no intentions of making demands. SWAT teams searched the building for over three hours, but the killers were lying dead the entire time.”
This quote refers to the nature of the Columbine massacre and debunks the notion that Eric and Dylan's motive involved money. It also further proves that they had no care for the wellbeing of the students and were killing individuals at random.
“For Eric, Columbine was a performance. Homicidal art… He scripted Columbine as made-for-TV murder, and his chief concern was that we would be too stupid to see the point.”
As mentioned in the previous quote, Eric's true intention with the Columbine massacre was to create fear, and he achieved this through his carefully thought out and planned horrific attack. The killer also saw himself as a super-intelligent being, which Cullen evaluates throughout his book and mentions within this quote when concerning Eric's primary worries regarding the incident.
“Fear was Eric’s ultimate weapon. He wanted to maximise terror. He didn’t want kids to fear isolated events like a sporting event or a dance; he wanted them to fear their daily lives. It worked.”
Although 15 people sadly lost their lives during the Columbine massacre, the true harm of the incident arose with the intense fear that American students continue to live through, a dark and terrifying legacy created by Eric.
“Eric dreamed big but settled for reality.”
Referring to Eric's obsessive planning of the Columbine massacre, Cullen identifies that the mass murder often conceptualized fantastical and unrealistic schemes, which is a testament to Eric's psychopathic nature. In the end, however, Eric's crime was fabricated with the ultimate purpose of instilling fear into the everyday lives of Americans, as is discerned in the previous quote.
“In 1885, the term psychopath was introduced to describe vicious human predators who were not deranged, delusional, or depressed. They just enjoyed being bad.”
Throughout his book, Dave Cullen instigates a lengthy discussion regarding the nature of Eric and Dylan's mentality, as to determine whether the boys suffered from mental illnesses, were sociopaths and products of their environment, or were simply born psychopaths. This quote sufficiently summarizes Eric's psychological profile, as his planning and execution of the attack suggest thoughtfulness and presence-of-mind, as well as his pure intent to create evil through his behavior.
“It was a mark of Eric’s ruthlessness that he comprehended the pain and consciously fought the urge to spare it.”
This quote further proves Eric's purpose to create fear and evil, as well as his absolute enjoyment of the horror he created. It also demonstrates the true and complex nature of Eric's psychological profile.
“A terrifying affliction had infested America’s small towns and suburbs: the school shooter.”
Although school shootings did not begin with Eric and Dylan, their purpose of instilling fear into the everyday lives of American students was extremely successful and it began a long-lasting pattern that extends to modernity, as mass shootings within American schools and colleges continues to the present day. It has become a regular part of everyday life for Americans, who have no choice but to push their anxieties aside and attempt to live through the fear.
“The two biggest myths were that shooters were loners and that they “snapped”. A staggering 93 percept planned their attack in advance.”
Just as Cullen identifies the psychological profile of Eric and Dylan within his book, so too does he look into the minds of school shooters as a whole, including their motive and execution of the various attacks. The author also debunks the myths associated with school shooters, identifying that individuals predominately create schemes with clear intent to cause harm.
“Ten years on a massacre can be tough on the soul.”
Cullen refers to his own personal experience with the Columbine massacre within this quote, as his ten years involved with research, writing, and helping the victims rebuild their lives have clearly taken a very big toll upon his character.
“The final portrait is often furthest from the truth.”
One of the most important quotes within the Cullen's book, the author speaks of the process of constructing his book, and how his final depiction of the Columbine massacre and those involved in the horrific incident is not necessarily a true reflection of what occurred.
