Quotes from Gregory David Roberts

it's better to die fighting than to die like a rat in a trap.

kurtapyjama. His face was deeply lined, and his white

Writing was one of the things that saved me: the discipline and abstraction of putting my life into words, every day, helped me to cope with shame and its first cousin, despair.

Faith is belief without fear, and freedom is one of faith's perfections

never knew a tough man who preyed on the weak. Tough men hate bullies almost as much as bullies hate tough men.

Prison pulls the masks away from men. You can't hide what you are, in prison. You can't pretend to be tough. You are, or you're not, and everyone knows it.

is possible to do the wrong thing for the right reasons.

Ah, my dear friend, I cannot claim it as my own. It was Karla who said it to me the first time, and I have used it ever since. I am guilty of many crimes—of most crimes, to say the truth—but I have never claimed a cleverness that was not my own.' 'Admirable,' I laughed.

Non sopporto i politici, è gente che ti promette un ponte anche se non ci sono fiumi.

There is no reason that is good enough to make us fight with each other.

the ghetto existed on a foundation of those anonymous, unthankable deeds; insignificant and almost trivial in themselves, but collectively essential to the survival of the slum.

God, if you'll accept my professional admiration. Anyway, Gemini and me, we sure could use the commission on that deal, and it would be kinda nice not to get ripped off, or beaten up, or maimed, or killed—unless, of course, that's in your plan. So, please light the way, and fill our hearts with love. Signing off now, but keeping the line open, as always, I'll say Amen.

La cosa sbagliata... per un motivo giusto.

There's a truth that's deeper than experience. It's beyond what we see, or even what we feel. It's an order of truth that separates the profound from the merely clever, and the reality from the perception.

Women, with no outlet for their special creativities, endured the long, quiet ruin of their talents. Others watched the slow waste of bright children who could've been more and done more in some other, busier place, but never would know more than the village, the fields, and the river.

Some treatments, however, seemed to be based on obscure superstitions rather than therapeutic traditions, and they were as contrary to common sense as they were to any notions of medical science.

In its essence, the longing for family, and the ravenousness that the loss of family creates in us, isn't just for belonging: it's for the grace that abides in serving those we love.

The dark clouds, which had painted their sombre moods on the sky for weeks, gathered from horizon to horizon, and seemed to press upon the tops of the tallest trees.

Your heart starts to feel like an overcrowded lifeboat. You throw your pride out to keep it afloat, and your self-respect and your independence. After a while you start throwing people out—your friends, everyone you used to know. And it's still not enough. The lifeboat is still sinking, and you know it's going to take you down with it. I've seen that happen to a lot of girls here.

Dawn put fire in the sky.

Lin, a man has to find a good woman, and when he finds her he has to win her love. Then he has to earn her respect. Then he has to cherish her trust. And then he has to, like, go on doing that for as long as they live. Until they both die. That's what it's all about.

I don't know if they found that name in the heart of the man they believed me to be, or if they planted it there, like a wishing tree, to bloom and grow. Whatever the case, whether they discovered that peace or created it, the truth is that the man I am was born in those moments, as I stood near the flood sticks with my face lifted to the chrismal rain. Shantaram. The better man that, slowly, and much too late, I began to be.

I knew what it was to feel utterly helpless.

because justice is a judgement that is both fair and forgiving. Justice is not done until everyone is satisfied