Things on the whole are much faster in America; people don't 'stand for election', they 'run for office.'

the prison system, inherently unjust and inhumane, is the ultimate expression of injustice and inhumanity in the society at large.

lifelong enemies are, I think, as hard to make and as important to one's well-being as lifelong friends.

Enemies are, to me, as important as friends in my life, and when they die I mourn their passing.

Growing up in the English countryside seemed an interminable process. Freezing winter gave way to frosty spring, which in turn merged into chilly summer-but nothing ever, ever happened.

One is only really inwardly comfortable, so to speak, after one's life has assumed some sort of shape. Not just a routine, like studying or a job or being a housewife, but something more complete than all those, which would include goals set by oneself and a circle of life-time type friends. I think this is one of the hardest things to achieve, in fact often just trying doesn't achieve it but rather it seems to develop almost by accident.

Society created the prison in its own image; will history, with its penchant for paradox, reverse those roles?