Brandon Stanton's Blog, page 362

"Even if we work hard to be a teacher, or a lawyer, or a doctor,...

"Even if we work hard to be a teacher, or a lawyer, or a doctor, we are seen first as outsiders."

"My family made me come. But I hate it. I can’t get a job...

"My family made me come. But I hate it. I can’t get a job because I have a lot of accent. I was an assistant manager at a big jewelry store in the Dominican Republic, now I clean tables. We had a big house there. Now we live in a small apartment. If I was home right now, I’d be in a very nice restaurant, on the beach, laughing with my friends. Not sitting alone on a bench, trying to learn English. There I was a princess. Here I am an immigrant. A servant."

"We’re getting divorced because we love each other, and we...

"We’re getting divorced because we love each other, and we both realize that we don’t have enough of what the other needs. When we decided to get divorced, I wrote a note with all the things I loved about her, and gave it to her. She got very emotional and started crying. Then three days later, she wrote me a similar note. But here’s the thing—- she wrote it on the back of a recycled piece of paper. She wrote it on the back of an advertisement or something. So I called her out on it. And she said: ‘I knew you were going to bring that up. If you cared, you wouldn’t mind what it was written on.’ And I said: ‘Well, if you cared, you’d have gotten a fresh piece of paper.’"

"I’m just trying to live through this problem man created....

"I’m just trying to live through this problem man created. Nature didn’t create the problem. Man created the problem. And I’m going to be honest, I’m going to say it, it was the European man who created this problem. European man invented the gun. Then he made a bigger gun, and he said: ‘I’m gonna keep this big gun for myself, and I’m gonna sell this small gun to you." And ever since then, he’s been keeping the big guns, and selling the small guns. So everybody’s got guns but none as big as him. And I’m through with it. I’m blind in one eye from Vietnam. If you want to die for this garbage game, that’s your fault. I’m through."

"It takes much more than being physically present. Your family...

"It takes much more than being physically present. Your family needs your attention. I realized this very young. One day I asked my wife why the children weren’t listening to me, and she said: ‘Because you never listen to them.’"

"I worked at an all-female radio station in Nepal. I was the...

"I worked at an all-female radio station in Nepal. I was the first woman from my village to get a job."

"I want to either open a liquor store or a funeral parlor.""Why...

"I want to either open a liquor store or a funeral parlor."
"Why those two things?"
"I figure those are the two things that everyone needs."

"It was the late 90’s. The police commissioner had figured...

"It was the late 90’s. The police commissioner had figured out that all the people committing small crimes were the same people committing big crimes, so the cops started cracking down on all the little stuff— and crime kept going down, down, down. Everything except bank robberies. Because all the big national banks were moving into the city, and buying out all the local banks. And these new corporate banks were all about ‘customer service.’ So they replaced the retired cops at the doors with ‘greeters’ who would give you coffee and donuts. So word got around fast that robbing banks was fucking easy now. All you had to do was walk in, hand them a note, and they’d hand over the cash. I never even carried a gun. The security footage was so grainy back then, you could barely see anything. It was easy. It’s much tougher these days. I’ve had dye packs explode on me three times. The worst was about a block from here. I had just left a bank, and was walking by the entrance to Penn Station during morning rush hour. Suddenly a noise starts coming from my pants, and a bright neon cloud starts shooting out. Hundreds of people were staring at me. I threw the thing away from me, hopped in a cab, and went to a bar."

"Bank robbery was my crime of choice. You know, I hadn’t...

"Bank robbery was my crime of choice. You know, I hadn’t committed a single crime until the age of 54. But then I robbed my first bank, and after that I went on quite a tear."

"It was like a romantic movie. Better than a romantic movie. But...

"It was like a romantic movie. Better than a romantic movie. But then he left and went back to Greece. I offered to come along, and learn the language, but he said ‘no.’ A few months later, a woman told me a story about how she had a dream about an old boyfriend, and she called him up, and they got back together and eventually married. I thought: ‘Maybe that will work for me too.’ So I called him in Greece. And he told me that he was expecting a child with another woman."