Sleepers Quotes

“The night and the streets were ours and the future lay sparkling ahead.
And we thought we would know each other forever.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Sleepers

“Live then, beloved children of my heart, and never forget that, until the day God deigns to reveal the future to man, the sum of all human wisdom will be contained in these two words; Wait and Hope.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Sleepers

“It’s time for quiet, Shakes,’ Michael said, staring down at the ground. ‘That I do know. Give things a rest. Find a spot where I can shut my eyes and not have to see the places I’ve been. Maybe I’ll even get lucky and forget I was ever there.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Sleepers

“Revenge. Sweet lasting revenge. And now it was time for all of us to get a taste.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Sleepers

“I am the only one who can speak for them, and for the children we were.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Sleepers

“I did my job,” the lawyer said. “The sworn oath of the mediocre,” Father Bobby said.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Sleepers

“I don't know what kind of man I would have grown to be had I not served time at The Wilkinson Home for Boys. I don't know how those months and the events that occurred there shaped the person I became, how much they colored my motives or my actions. I don't know if they made me any braver or any weaker. I don't know if the illnesses I've suffered as an adult have been the result of those ruinous months. I'll never know if my distrust of most people and my unease when placed in group situations are byproducts of those days or simply the result of a shy personality.

I do know the dreams and nightmares I've had all these years are born of the nights spent in that cell at Wilkinson. That the scars I carry, both mental and physical, are gifts of a system that treated children as prey. The images that screen across my mind in the lonely hours are mine to bear alone, shared only by the silent community of sufferers who once lived as I did, in a world that was deaf to our screams.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Sleepers

“We had nothing else - no money, no bikes, no summer camps, no vacations. Nothing, except one another.
To us, that was all that mattered.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Sleepers

“Those cries can be heard through the thickest walls. They can cut through concrete and skin and reach deep into the dark parts of a lost boy’s soul. They are cries that change the course of a life, that trample innocence and snuff out goodness.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Sleepers

“It was our special night and we held it for as long as we could. It was something that belonged to us. A night that would be added to our long list of memories.
It was our happy ending.
And it was the last time we would ever be together again.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Sleepers

“My family has helped me escape from many of the pains of my past. But the haunting memories of childhood are always close at hand. My body is older than its years and my mind is filled more with horror than with the pleasures of life. The dreams I have are still vivid, the nightmares painful, the fears steady. The nighttime hours always carry a sense of dread.
I sometimes feel that the lucky Sleepers are the ones who died.
They no longer have to live with the memories.
They are free of the dreams.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Sleepers

“I had walked into Wilkinson a boy. Now, I wasn't at all sure who or what I was.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Sleepers

“Only then could I move away from the wails of the walking dead and feel, for a fragment of time, that I was still alive.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Sleepers

“We were just somethin' for you and your friends to play with.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Sleepers

“clothes”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Sleepers