Afeni Shakur Quotes

Lots of people think I went to prison. I never went to prison. I was in jail without bail.

I am jailed, with around 200 other inmates, in a wide hall that looks like a warehouse.

Prison was tough on me. I saw people in prison that made me ashamed I was a human being. Some make Qaddafi and Idi Amin look like Sunday-school teachers.

My occupation now, I suppose, is jail inmate.

All prisons that have existed in our society to date put people away as no human being should ever be put away.

What I have experienced is nothing compared to what political prisoners in prisons suffer.

… [Secret detention is] odious to a democratic society

I think most of us are far removed from what goes on in our jails and the system. When I started working on 'Lucknow Central,' it was the first time I gave it some thought.

I don't believe that man was built to be put in a 5-by-7 for 30 years and have his sanity when he comes out if he doesn't find something to escape.

It was very cold in jail. But inmates were good. They shared their stories with me.

In many respects, people on the outside suffered more than those of us in jail. In prison, we ate three times a day, we had clothing, we had free medical services, and we could sleep for 12 hours.

I ain't never been in no cell that had a phone in it. Can I stay for a while? I ordered some pizza.

Hell no / I ain't going to go / Clean out my cell / And take my tail / To jail / Without bail / Because it's better there eating / Watching television fed / Than in Vietnam with your white folks dead.

Prison is a severe and terrible punishment; but for me, thanks to Arthur Balfour, this was not so. I was much cheered on my arrival by the warder at the gate, who had to take particulars about me. He asked my religion, and I replied 'agnostic.' He asked how to spell it, and remarked with a sigh: 'Well, there are many religions, but I suppose they all worship the same God.' This remark kept me cheerful for about a week.

What we do have is nothin' but time. Welcome to the Shawshank Redemption of late night!

I used to get a lot of letters from prisoners. It used to get on my nerves. Especially family members. Everybody's innocent.

Are there other people who, when watching a documentary set in a prison, secretly think, as I have, 'Wish I had all that time to read'?

I realized then that a man who had lived only one day could easily live for a hundred years in prison. He would have enough memories to keep him from being bored

As far as I am concerned I would rather spend the rest of my life in prison than marry again.

To live in prison is to live without mirrors. To live without mirrors is to live without the self.

I've got a lot of letters from prison. Lost was a big prison show. But it's really crazy when you get the letter that says, 'So, I'm getting out in three months, I've only been in for 17 years and I'd really like to meet you.'

When you're in prison, you can't do anything about what's happening outside.

I was in prison and I was an atheist. I didn't believe in anything.

When I was in the penitentiary after being accused of killing a policeman, I was more in the system in the penitentiary than ever.