Pain of Confinement Quotes

“Why is it that we all fight and squabble together and make life so bloody miserable for the short time that all of us are here? Why do we find it so difficult to let those loving parts of us flow to each other and at least make this short stay something precious?”
― Jimmy Boyle, Pain of Confinement: Prison Diaries

“I want to live. I want to walk for a spell without having some great fucking wall stopping me taking another step. I just want to be free. I want to see the stars without seeing bars. I want to be caught in a busy shopping crowd. I want to see children playing nonsense games. I want to see a dog pissing against a lamp post. I want to take my girlfriend for a walk. I want to sleep a whole night beside her. I want to see all of you suffer less. I want away from institutions.”
― Jimmy Boyle, Pain of Confinement: Prison Diaries

“26th June ’76 I am a human being. You must understand that imprisoned terrorists are also human beings. There is no sense doing away with what you call the barbaric capital punishment if you are going to replace it with a slower form of death.”
― Jimmy Boyle, Pain of Confinement: Prison Diaries

“I am locked into this crisis where I am questioning my continuance as a human being. What do the days ahead hold for me? Can I pick myself up from the floor, scooping up the millions of scattered pieces, and face the nothingness of tomorrow? The writing can only reflect a surface image of what is going on. This does not devalue its importance. Its very existence may be the key to another person’s feelings. Feelings. Those parts that we all try to hide from each other. The shame, the jealousy, the guilt and insecurity. Our inferiority. Who can put up the most convincing mask to hide the inner turmoil? It’s all about chasing illusions that don’t really exist. It’s like hating some bastard yet when he dies we realise he wasn’t so bad after all. 1st June ’77 I think of the Unit Community while doing my exercises. The once strong foundation of our Community – the meetings – is crumbling. Crumbling in the sense that it will evaporate into the impotent ways of the whole prison system, be smothered by their stringent restrictions, bound up in bureaucracy. And even if this did happen, people would still visit the place from outside and say what a fine place it was because it will always be that bit different from the main penal system. They will see it only as it is,”
― Jimmy Boyle, Pain of Confinement: Prison Diaries