Amanda Berry > Quotes

“One minute I feel whole and strong, and the next minute I feel like I am breaking.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“Life is too short to be mean to people.”
― Amanda Berry

“When I stand in front of the mirror, I look the same, just a lot thinner. My family and friends would know me in a second, but I’m a different person now. I was never sad before.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“But our story is not just about rape and chains, lies and misery. That was Ariel Castro’s world. Our story is about overcoming all that.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“She lives not as a victim, but as a survivor. Her insurmountable will to prevail is the only story worth discussing.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“When we have so little, it’s easy to get jealous over even the smallest things.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“I don’t want him to get away with it. I need to outlast him.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“After what I’ve been through, I can face anything.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“Even if he was a victim, he had the power to choose.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“Life is better with Jocelyn here.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“Castro told them that he wanted to “do my time in peace.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“He’s obsessed with making the house look normal so the neighbors don’t suspect anything. The people on one side are from Puerto Rico, and he’s always speaking Spanish with them. Usually on summer days he’s out in the yard or the garage working, so he says they might think something is strange if the garage door stays closed for days at a time. He doesn’t miss a detail.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“I listen to “Lose Yourself” over and over, trying to believe when he sings: “You can do anything you set your mind to.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“feel sorry for him. I’m grateful that he went out of his way today to make us happy. I have never felt closer to him than I do at this moment.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“Other times he would drive by me slowly, smiling and waving. I always waved back. I figured my neighborhood must have been on his bus route. Now I bet he was stalking me.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“Hope is my only option.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“This has taught me a lot—like NEVER take life or anything for granted! Sitting”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“Why do so many men hurt women?”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“Castro stood, and bailiffs led him out a side door of the courtroom. It was the last time he would ever be seen in public.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“I remember one day I heard people on TV talking about sociopaths. I had never heard that word before, but the description fit him so perfectly that I wrote the word down and later looked it up in the dictionary: a person whose behavior lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience. And I thought: That’s him! I started going through the whole dictionary to find other words to describe him and wrote some of them in my diary: Censorious: Always finding fault, criticizing. Despot: Person who treats those under his control in any way he cares to, cruel or unjust. Fastidious: Not easy to please. Very particular. Impenitent: Not feeling shame or regret. Not sorry for what he’s done. Imperious: Like a dictator, arrogant. Impolite. Impudent: Not showing respect, shamelessly rude. Sadist. He is all those things.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“The impact of these crimes on our family is something that we do not want to discuss with people we don’t know,” Beth told the judge. “Even if I wanted to talk about it, it is impossible to put into words. For me, I lost my sister for all those years and thought it was forever. And we lost my mother forever. And she died not knowing. . . . It is impossible to put into words how much it hurts. “Amanda is not here today. She is strong, beautiful, inside and out, and is doing better every day. She’s not just my only sister, but the best friend I have and the best person I know. She does not want to talk about these things. She has not talked about these things even with me. “The main reason she does not want anyone to talk about these things, or be forced to talk about these things, is because she has a daughter. She would like to be the person who decides what to tell her daughter, when to tell her daughter, and how to tell her daughter certain things.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“To Ariel Castro’s family, we are saddened that you are burdened with this horror and will unfortunately forever be tied to these atrocities. Please know that we do not hold you accountable and pray that you can one day be whole again. Continue to love and support one another—we promise you that with this recipe you will be triumphant. “Our family recognizes it is not for us to judge or determine any punishment. Only a higher power can do that.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“Before I was kidnapped, I would have thought: What bad luck that my first flight was so horrible. Now, after learning to focus on the positive, I think: What good luck that we landed safely.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“It’s going to be hard to explain how fear paralyzes you.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“The vice president asks us to sit down and then sits forward in his chair, looking at Gina and then me, focusing in hard, like we’re the only people in the world. “I can’t begin to imagine what you went through,” he says. “Nobody can begin to imagine what that was like.” He tells us about a terrible accident in 1972 that killed his wife and daughter. His eyes are filling with tears, and we’re all starting to cry, too. “I didn’t have the courage to deal with it,” he says. “I just kind of quit. I didn’t have the strength to confront it.” He leans in close and looks me right in the eyes: “Like you do.” Then he turns to Gina: “And you do.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“I just found a strange-looking bag in the freezer and asked what it was, and he told me it was my placenta! I couldn’t believe it. He keeps everything. He said he was afraid that if he threw it away, the garbage men might see it and get suspicious.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“I never thought I could hurt anybody, but now I find myself daydreaming about whether I could actually kill him. I”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“I try to go back to sleep because at least when I’m asleep I don’t feel lonely.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“He doesn’t make mistakes. I’m so worried the police and FBI will never figure it out. He seems like a nice, normal, middle-aged, friendly guy. He doesn’t look crazy.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“Censorious: Always finding fault, criticizing. Despot: Person who treats those under his control in any way he cares to, cruel or unjust. Fastidious: Not easy to please. Very particular. Impenitent: Not feeling shame or regret. Not sorry for what he’s done. Imperious: Like a dictator, arrogant. Impolite. Impudent: Not showing respect, shamelessly rude.”
― Amanda Berry, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland