The part of me which wanders through my mind and never sees or feels actual objects, but which lives in and moves through my passions and my emotions, experiences this world as a horrible nightmare.
About Jack Henry Abbott
Jack Henry Abbottwas an American criminal and author. With a long history of criminal convictions, Abbott’s writing concerning his life and experiences was lauded by a number of well-known literary critics, including author Norman Mailer.
More quotes from Jack Henry Abbott
Imagine a thousand more such daily intrusions in your life, every hour and minute of every day, and you can grasp the source of this paranoia, this anger that could consume me at any moment if I lost control.
American author and criminal
To be in prison so long, it’s difficult to remember exactly what you did to get there.
American author and criminal
When I’m forced by circumstances to be in a crowd of prisoners, it’s all I can do to refrain from attack.
American author and criminal
The part of me which wanders through my mind and never sees or feels actual objects, but which lives in and moves through my passions and my emotions, experiences this world as a horrible nightmare.
American author and criminal
The other inmates stand in a long straight line, flanked by guards, and I am dragged past them. I do not respect them, because they will not run – will not try to escape.
American author and criminal
I find it painful and angering to look in a mirror.
American author and criminal
There was never sufficient evidence presented at my trial to support a finding of intent to kill.
American author and criminal
When they talk of ghosts of the dead who wander in the night with things still undone in life, they approximate my subjective experience of this life.
American author and criminal
I escaped one time. In 1971 I was in the free world for six weeks.
American author and criminal
As long as I am nothing but a ghost of the civil dead, I can do nothing.
American author and criminal
Because there is something helpless and weak and innocent – something like an infant – deep inside us all that really suffers in ways we would never permit an insect to suffer.
American author and criminal
Paranoia is an illness I contracted in institutions. It is not the reason for my sentences to reform school and prison. It is the effect, not the cause.
American author and criminal
I have been desperate to escape for so many years now, it is routine for me to try to escape.
American author and criminal
One morning I woke up and was plunged into psychological shock. I had forgotten I was free.
American author and criminal
Nothing is over and done with. Nothing. Not even your malice.
American author and criminal
That is how prison is tearing me up inside. It hurts every day. Every day takes me further from my life.
American author and criminal
My eyes, my brain seek out escape routes wherever I am sent.
American author and criminal
I’ve wanted somehow to convey to you the sensations – the atmospheric pressure, you might say – of what it is to be seriously a long-term prisoner in an American prison.
American author and criminal