Stephen Reid > Quotes

“Prisons are about addictions. Most prisoners are casualties of their own habits. They have all created victims — some in cruel and callous ways — but almost to a man they have first practised that cruelty on themselves. Prison provides the loneliness that fuels addiction. It is the slaughterhouse for addicts, and all are eventually delivered to its gates.”
― Stephen Reid, A Crowbar in the Buddhist Garden

“Since leaving prison twelve years ago I had wanted desperately to build something of my own life, too. But with every task completed, every responsibility met and promise kept, there came — along with a sense of satisfaction and well-being — another unsettling sense that my life was becoming nervously enclosed. Increasingly I felt too far inside, too weatherproofed; I feared I might lose the feel of the rain on my face and the wind in my hair.”
― Stephen Reid, A Crowbar in the Buddhist Garden

“One person presents their story each day; no one has to be Sigmund Freud to figure out these were men who grew so tired of being wounded, they went out and wounded something else.”
― Stephen Reid, A Crowbar in the Buddhist Garden

“Still, I wish there existed a meat cleaver I could simply hand to some sort of metaphysical butcher who could lop off the part of me that committed these crimes, and who could send that part off packing to the stoney lonesome. Then the rest of me — the other ninety-nine percent — the part that is a devoted father, a decent neighbour, a dedicated husband, and a caring, useful member of my community could go home.”
― Stephen Reid, A Crowbar in the Buddhist Garden

“doesn’t encourage those locked up as criminals to learn to engage with their experience on any intellectual level. The discourse on crime and punishment, in our parliaments and newspapers, has been reduced to bumper stickers. Zero Tolerance: Three Strikes and You’re Out. We are a society impatient with its misfits.”
― Stephen Reid, A Crowbar in the Buddhist Garden

“felt good that, although there was no future, there would always be a past.”
― Stephen Reid, A Crowbar in the Buddhist Garden

“What to pack for the digger? Bruce Powe once addressed a Writers’ Union AGM, and one phrase had stuck with me: “the future of solitude is reading.” My future was a lock. I’d better pack the reading.”
― Stephen Reid, A Crowbar in the Buddhist Garden

“It seemed the perfect place to unmake my life, just for this afternoon. Just for today.”
― Stephen Reid, A Crowbar in the Buddhist Garden