James Patterson Quotes

I got a fan letter on the back of a prison menu. And I remember thinking, 'Well, they get pie. It's not so bad. They get pie on the weekends.' I want to say blueberry and also a Boston cream pie. Not so bad.

I was always shocked in prison because it's a scary place. It's not natural to lock that many people up like that, in such a tiny place. There's something disturbing about it.

It's [Jail's] like being at school. Except you can't leave.

Prison itself is a tremendous education in the need for patience and perseverance. It is above all a test of one's commitment.

Prison is where you promise yourself the right to live.

I mean, what is prison, really, except a good bar without the liquor?

Prison is not a mere physical horror. It is using a pickaxe to no purpose that makes a prison.

I shot a couple of movies in jail, but I was never in jail.

I relate to any prison movie, as long as it has some authenticity.

Being in jail is difficult too because it's like being in a graveyard, you can't do much.

When I was in prison, I read an article - don't be shocked when I say I was in prison. You're still in prison. That's what America means: prison.

Prison is a severe and terrible punishment; but for me, thanks to Arthur Balfour, this was not so. I was much cheered on my arrival by the warder at the gate, who had to take particulars about me. He asked my religion, and I replied 'agnostic.' He asked how to spell it, and remarked with a sigh: 'Well, there are many religions, but I suppose they all worship the same God.' This remark kept me cheerful for about a week.

Are there other people who, when watching a documentary set in a prison, secretly think, as I have, 'Wish I had all that time to read'?

When you're in prison, you can't do anything about what's happening outside.

I am in the penitentiary. The only thing that I do is my time.

I am jailed, with around 200 other inmates, in a wide hall that looks like a warehouse.

When I was incarcerated at Alderson in West Virginia for a five-month term, they had a ceramics class.

My occupation now, I suppose, is jail inmate.

Yeah, I've gotten a few letters from prison.

When you're in prison, and we're left to our own devices, you're stripped of everything, and you really get to see who these people are, the good and the bad.

I was kind of excited about going to jail the first time and I learnt some great dialogue.

The story follows the whole family. But pretty much all the characters who are in jail have written a book about it, so you've got their perspective of it, however skewed they want you to see it.

I did get to Beersheba [in Israel], but only to prison there. It was actually very nice, with television and free international calls. I would recommend it even over many hotels I have known. It was a shame to leave.

Prison is essentially a shortage of space made up for by a surplus of time; to an inmate, both are palpable.