Skip to main content

Daily Inspiration Quote by Gary Gilmore

"See you in the darkness"

About this Quote

"See you in the darkness" lands like a casual farewell that’s been hollowed out and refilled with menace. Coming from Gary Gilmore - a convicted murderer who became a grim celebrity for insisting the state carry out his execution - the line isn’t poetic so much as pointed. It’s a last-word flex: the speaker refuses the script of remorse and instead writes his own exit as a continuation, a rendezvous, a promise.

The intent reads as control. Executions are designed to make the condemned small: strapped down, timed, spoken over by procedure. Gilmore’s phrasing flips that power dynamic. "See you" assumes agency and future tense; it’s the language of someone walking out of a bar, not being marched to death. "The darkness" does double work: it’s literal (death, oblivion, the unknown) and social (the moral night around violence, punishment, and voyeurism). He’s not just heading into darkness; he’s inviting witnesses to join him there, implicating them. The subtext is accusatory: if you’re here to watch, you’re already in it.

Context sharpens the line into a cultural mirror. Gilmore’s case helped crystallize late-20th-century America’s uneasy blend of true-crime fascination and hardline punishment. His farewell is built to travel - short, quotable, cinematic. That’s the final trick: even at the edge of state-sanctioned death, he manages to stage-manage his own legend, turning a last breath into an afterimage.

Quote Details

TopicMortality
SourceHelp us find the source
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Gilmore, Gary. (2026, January 16). See you in the darkness. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/see-you-in-the-darkness-112156/

Chicago Style
Gilmore, Gary. "See you in the darkness." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/see-you-in-the-darkness-112156/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"See you in the darkness." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/see-you-in-the-darkness-112156/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Gary Add to List
See You in the Darkness: Gary Gilmore Quote Meaning and Analysis
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

USA Flag

Gary Gilmore (December 4, 1940 - January 17, 1977) was a Criminal from USA.

9 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

Maria Callas, Musician
Maria Callas
William Shakespeare, Dramatist
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare, Dramatist
William Shakespeare
Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, Poet
Christopher Fry, Playwright
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Poet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow