“He was possibly mentally ill, though he had never been diagnosed, inside or outside of prison. He was angry, abusive and hostile for a long while.”
Cheryl Wheeler
“In prison, those things withheld from and denied to the prisoner become precisely what he wants most of all.”
Eldridge Cleaver
“When a prisoner sees the door of his dungeon open he dashes for it without stopping to think where he shall get his dinner.”
George Bernard Shaw
“He that is taken and put into prison or chains is not conquered, though overcome; for he is still an enemy.”
Thomas Hobbes
“I've been a prisoner and lived in prison for a while; I've been a missionary in China; I've been a vampire and a priest in Poland in World War II. I guess without bragging or being too prideful about it I'm excited when I look back at these things that I've done. I've had lots of wonderful opportunities.”
Willem Dafoe
“Reality is a prison, where one vegetates and always will. All the rest /thought, action /is just a pastime, mental or physical. What counts then, is to come to grips with reality. The rest can go.”
Cesare Pavese
“He was a first-time nonviolent possible offender, ... And under the mandatory minimums, he was put in prison for 15 years. Not only does the punishment not fit the crime, but the mandatory minimums don't give judges any discretion to look at the background of the case, to read into the specifics of the case. I don't know a judge who really is in favor of the mandatory minimums.”
Carly Simon
