American - Author | January 21, 1944 - February 10, 2002
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.
Jack Henry Abbott
LifeExperienceNightWanderTalk
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.
RespectPastI AmStandLongRun
When I'm forced by circumstances to be in a crowd of prisoners, it's all I can do to refrain from attack.
I CanCircumstancesCrowdAttack
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.
DeepInnocentNeverInsideWeakUs
My eyes, my brain seek out escape routes wherever I am sent.
EyesI AmBrainEscapeOutWherever
That is how prison is tearing me up inside. It hurts every day. Every day takes me further from my life.
LifeDayMePrisonMy LifeInside
One morning I woke up and was plunged into psychological shock. I had forgotten I was free.
MorningFreeUpForgottenWokeHad
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.
MindMeWorldEmotionsNever
There was never sufficient evidence presented at my trial to support a finding of intent to kill.
SupportFindingNeverEvidenceTrial
As long as I am nothing but a ghost of the civil dead, I can do nothing.
I AmLongI CanNothingDeadGhost
I find it painful and angering to look in a mirror.
MirrorLookFindPainful
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.
SchoolPrisonReasonIllnessReform
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