I was already a wreck when I went in, and prison nearly destroyed what little was left of me. I was worse when I came out than I was when I went in, and was not positively changed in any way.

I don't believe anyone can go through the prison experience without being changed by it. The experience becomes part of your identity forever.

I'm actually a lowlife. On the street at fifteen and also in jail for the first time at that age, and off and on the street until my mid-twenties.

The loss of a sexual life is one of the worst things about getting really old. The worst thing.

I felt compelled to blow the whistle on the penal system, under the delusion that doing so might result in some change, or at least save a few women from the same fate. Eternally naïve, that's me.

My published works are concrete evidence that I exist.

A crisis of confidence is so common that it should be considered a universal part of the adoption process.