Alex Smith

“Don’t ’oo call me a Culchie,’ said Parry between his teeth, and ferociously, but he could have said it from between the two cheeks of his arse, and twice as ferociously at that stage of the game, for all I cared. Because I had him weighed up and it was clearly a case of have him now or be persecuted by him for as long as I’d be within reach of him. Now, it was, or never, as the man said; die dog or shite the licence.”
― Brendan Behan, Borstal Boy

“But the best book I ever saw in the nick was the Bible. When I was in Brixton on remand, I ’ad one in the flowery. Smashing thin paper for rolling dog-ends in. I must ’ave smoked my way through the book of Genesis, before I went to court.”
― Brendan Behan, Borstal Boy

“They want us to be shepherds to these kids. But no one wants to talk about the fact that many of them are raised by wolves.”
― J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy

“In other words, despite all of the environmental pressures from my neighborhood and community, I received a different message at home. And that just might have saved me.”
― J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis