Prison Quotes

"I'd go to swim practice, put my face in the water, and I didn't have to talk to anybody. Swimming was like my escape, but it was also like this huge prison because I felt like I had to swim up to people's standards"

Amanda Beard, Athlete

"While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free"

Eugene V. Debs, Politician

"Until the year 1967, it was a crime, for which you could be put in prison, to make homosexual love to someone in your own house. If they came in and caught you at it, you could be put into prison. This has changed - I'm talking about England, incidentally"

Patrick Macnee, Actor

"His tenacity is unmatched in my opinion. Incredible how someone could have suffered that long and come back out of prison with such a good heart and positive things to say and do"

Maurice Ashley, Celebrity

"Women now have choices. They can be married, not married, have a job, not have a job, be married with children, unmarried with children. Men have the same choice we've always had: work, or prison"

Tim Allen, Comedian

"I had a weird situation were someone used my name to extort money from a woman. He took her for 60 or 80 thousand dollars. He is in prison now. It was on Sally"

Michael Biehn, Actor

"I'm still friendly with Dean. He still calls me on the phone from time to time. John Dean was fired and later ended up spending some time in prison for his role in Watergate"

Fred F. Fielding, Lawyer

"Why you kill me? I never did you anything. Not kill me! I beg not to be locked up. Never let me out of my prison - not kill me! You kill me before I understand what life is. You must tell me why you locked me up!"

Kaspar Hauser, Celebrity

"Money will determine whether the accused goes to prison or walks out of the courtroom a free man"

Johnnie Cochran, Lawyer

"The day after the prison was transferred to the military intelligence command, they had an entire battalion - 1,200, 1,500 soldiers - arrive at Abu Ghraib just for force protection alone"

Janis Karpinski, Soldier

"But you see, that's the gilded prison of fashion. We're riding in private jets, and meantime I was so incredibly, painfully sad and lonely"

Janice Dickinson, Model

"Whatever you think of de Sade, he was a complex figure and we should not look for easy answers with him. He was, strangely perhaps, against the death penalty, and he was never put in prison for murders or anything like that"

Philip Kaufman, Director

"Federal prison, if you get any of it, you're going to have to do 85% of it. And the reason why I called it that is because I had a friend who got sent to the federal joint and his whole... it wasn't about him being in jail. He cried about the 85%"

Mike Epps, Comedian

"There are many more serial killers living outside the prison walls than inside"

Pat Brown, Entertainer

"I stagnated in prison a long time, and I have wasted most of my life"

Gary Gilmore, Criminal

"The difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is the thickness of a prison wall"

Denis Healey, Politician

"If you meet somebody who's spent any length of time in prison, you don't let your guard down. Ever. And really, that's what that was about-if you open up too much, you're asking to get your teeth kicked in"

Tim Roth, Actor

"In prison, inmates sometimes use Cheetos and grape juice as makeup. I wouldn't use that beauty regimen around Britney Spears - she might lick your face off!"

Joel McHale, Comedian

"I am now going from a prison to a palace: I have finished my work, and am now going to receive my wages"

Christopher Love, Educator

"With no other security forces on hand, U.S. military was left to confront, almost alone, an Iraqi insurgency and a crime rate that grew worse throughout the year, waged in part by soldiers of the disbanded army and in part by criminals who were released from prison"

John Spratt, Politician

"Interesting enough, we had a reunion of the 12 of us who graduated, right? The only one who wasn't there was the guy who became a priest, and he was literally in prison in Libya, for being a Catholic priest. Isn't that interesting? Everybody else made the reunion but that guy"

Peter Jurasik, Actor

"In the deregulated realm of US banking and finance, crime does occasionally pay for its foul deeds, not in prison time but by making modest rebates to the victims"

William Greider, Author

"Prison make you a better judge of character. You pick up on people much faster"

Suge Knight, Producer

"Why would anyone expect Tyson to come out smarter? He went to prison for four years, not Princeton"

Lou Duva, Coach

"I made a movie where I played a girl that just got out of prison and we shot it very very quickly but very intensely-that took me a long time to get over"

Maggie Gyllenhaal, Actress

"I'm in prison. But my heart and mind is free. Gangsta haters on the streets are doing more time than me. They need 30 police escorts with them every time they walk down the street"

Suge Knight, Producer

"Today begins a new saga in my life which I expect to strengthen me and allow me time for reflection... I plan to write music while in prison, read and pray regularly and will come out a stronger, more confident woman"

Lil' Kim, Musician

"The four walls of paper are like a prison because every idea wants to spring out in all directions - everything is connected with everything else, sometimes more than others"

Ted Nelson, Author

"In prison, you get the chance to see who really loves you"

Suge Knight, Producer

"As we have seen, WikiLeaks is a robust organization. During my time in solitary confinement in the basement of a Victorian prison, we continue to release, our media partners continued to write stories. The important revelations from this material continue to come out. We have approximately 2,000 cables into 250,000"

Julian Assange, Activist

"I devoted my career to building an affinity with my fans who have supported me unflinchingly and no barbed wire fence or prison wall will stop that"

Foxy Brown, Musician

"He who sells what isn't his'n, Must buy it back or go to prison"

Daniel Drew, Businessman

"That is how prison is tearing me up inside. It hurts every day. Every day takes me further from my life"

Jack Henry Abbott, Criminal

"Paranoia is an illness I contracted in institutions. It is not the reason for my sentences to reform school and prison. It is the effect, not the cause"

Jack Henry Abbott, Criminal