Sufjan Stevens Quotes

In Venezuela, when I was living there, crime was growing. You couldn't feel safe anywhere. You couldn't leave your car in the street because it would be stolen. You coun't live in your house if you didn't have a high-security alarm system, because you would be burglarized seven times a week.

The roads are filled with armed robbers, and murders for mere plunder are of daily occurrence.

I live in a neighborhood so bad that you can get shot while getting shot.

I'd heard it was dangerous to walk around Miami.

My parents were overprotective because you could get kidnapped and bombs were exploding in the streets.

The streets are safe in Philadelphia, it's only the people that make them unsafe.

Knife crime and gun crime is poverty-driven, and poverty leads to insecurity.

I saw my city gripped by fear. Because of violent acts committed by illegal aliens, my residents were afraid to shop - or even drive - on certain streets.

I lived for 10 years in Los Angeles, and the one element that surpasses everything else - that you are very conscious of - is fear. You can smell it.

No wonder we have a lot of violence in Rio: the corrupt and violent policemen meet the violent criminals in the streets. What else is going to happen?

The basic purpose of this documentary is to very strongly and efficiently depict the national prevalence of juvenile delinquency, crime, moral degeneration, narcotics, and the facts that women are afraid to walk on the street at night and parents are fearful for their children, husbands for their wives … to portray and remind the people of something they already know exists, and that is the moral crisis in America, the rising crime rate, pornography, filthy magazines, which is all part of the same package. We want to just make them mad, make their stomachs turn.

Respect for law is fading from the sensibilities of our people. Twenty times as many people in proportion to the population are lawlessly killed in the United States as in Great Britain. There are fifty times as many robberies. Life and property are relatively more unsafe than in any civilized country in the world.

You have seen for a long time the great disorder in the world caused by these crimes. It is so bad in some of your provinces, I am told, and you are so weak in the administration of justice, that one can hardly go along the road by day or night without being attacked by robbers; and whether at home or abroad one is in danger of being despoiled either by force or fraud.

New York was scarier than Baltimore ever was. It was terrible in the '70s. I'm glad they cleaned it up. I got mugged; I had to go to the hospital. Every time you went out, you got robbed. It was horrible. You can't imagine.

Long Beach is fast. Every day, you hear something bad; somebody gets hurt.

I got robbed once. A man pulled a gun on me and snatched my pocketbook in a car. I don't trust men that much any more.

Living in Rio is dangerous sometimes.

I don't like Johannesburg, where I grew up. Everybody lives in 'gated' buildings, is paranoid about crime and is always talking about being mugged. It's not a very joyful place.

There's crime everywhere.

Even in a healthy society, violence, lawlessness, and predation lie just below the surface.

You can live an entire lifetime in Chicago and not hear a gunshot, but if you go in a certain neighborhood then you can live your whole lifetime hearing gunshots all the time.

New York has a strong focus on the migration of immigrants, and there is a crime element there and even an underbelly, but Chicago is a much harder and more brazen city.

Some nights I lie awake at night thinking, 'What's going to stop someone from smashing a chair through my window and coming in the house at two in the morning?' It is very unnerving. It's a realistic scare, which is the worst kind of scare that you could have.

In the '80s, you couldn't walk in the neighborhood without looking back to see if anyone was following you. You had your key in your hand before you got to your apartment and you'd rush in so you didn't have to stop.

The trouble with America is that there are far too many wide open spaces surrounded by teeth.