Bob Sweeney: There was a moment… when I used to blame everything and everyone… for all the pain and suffering and vile things that happened to me, that I saw happen to my people. Used to blame everybody. Blamed white people, blamed society, blamed God. I didn’t get no answers ‘cause I was asking the wrong questions. You have to ask the right questions.
Derek Vinyard: Like what?
Bob Sweeney: Has anything you’ve done made your life better?

Derek Vinyard: One in every three black males is in some phase of the correctional system. Is that a coincidence or do these people have, you know, like a racial commitment to crime?

Doris Vinyard: You think you’re the only one doin’ time, Derek? You think you’re here all alone? You think I’m not in here with you?

Danny Vinyard: So I guess this is where I tell you what I learned – my conclusion, right? Well, my conclusion is: Hate is baggage. Life’s too short to be pissed off all the time. It’s just not worth it. Derek says it’s always good to end a paper with a quote. He says someone else has already said it best. So if you can’t top it, steal from them and go out strong. So I picked a guy I thought you’d like. ‘We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.’

Derek Vinyard: We’re so hung up on this notion that we have some obligation to help the struggling black man, you know. Cut him some slack until he can overcome these historical injustices. It’s crap. I mean, Christ, Lincoln freed the slaves, like, what? 130 years ago. How long does it take to get your act together?

[Inside prison laundry]
Lamont: I’m the most dangerous man in this prison. You know why? ‘Cause I control the underwear.

Danny Vinyard: We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained we must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be by the better angels of our nature.

Danny Vinyard: I believe in death, destruction, chaos, filth, and greed.

Cameron: You made the fat kid a little nervous. He thinks the joint messed with your mind.
Derek Vinyard: It did.

[On Derek’s change in prison]
Danny Vinyard: I’m sorry, Derek. I’m sorry that happened to you.
Derek Vinyard: I’m not. I’m lucky. I feel lucky because it’s wrong, Danny. It’s wrong and it was eating me up, it was going to kill me. And I kept asking myself all the time, how did I buy into this shit? It was because I was pissed off, and nothing I ever did ever took that feeling away. I killed two guys, Danny, I killed them. And it didn’t make me feel any different. It just got me more lost and I’m tired of being pissed off, Danny. I’m just tired of it.

Derek Vinyard: D’you see this?
[Pulls down shirt to reveal huge swastika tattoo on his chest]
Derek Vinyard: This means “Not welcome”.

Danny Vinyard: [writing the beginning of the essay] People look at me and see my brother.