“Ruth once told me when I went to visit her at HMP Highpoint that it is surprising how much of what you imagine to be your innate sense of self actually comes from things that aren't one's self at all:… — Alexander Masters Copy Share Image
“I have a great sense of Stuart and silence on these nights. The village, wrapped in sleep; owls glide between the yew trees, badgers… — Alexander Masters Copy Share Image
“And it is strange: a few moments after the cars that brought us down drive off, I become aware that already I have discovered… — Alexander Masters Copy Share Image
Twenty miles on, we have spotted a roadside sign: 'CHAINSAW CARVED MUSHROOMS'. Troubles promptly forgotten, Stuart falls to gawping at the road ahead. What… — Alexander Masters Copy Share Image
“You'd think the homeless would despise the rest of us, but it seems the thing they want to do most is talk. If only… — Alexander Masters Copy Share Image
I don't know, Alexander, sometimes it gets so bad you can't think of nothing better to do than make it worse. — Alexander Masters Copy Share Image
“Disobedience is one of the few tricks you have left to hang on to the idea that you continue to exist distinctively and are… — Alexander Masters Copy Share Image
“Sometimes Stuart seems like an irritable fisherman. He bobs about, on the disruption of his life, a small, unsteady figure, fishing for order. Then… — Alexander Masters Copy Share Image
And so on, until you arrive at the other side, among the purely abstract self-harming: the grinding over your failures, the refusal to remember… — Alexander Masters Copy Share Image
“Is this what real homelessness is like? Not just a particular set of roof and walls gone, but a sense of the death of… — Alexander Masters Copy Share Image
It's a question I often ask myself: what would I do with me? And I don't know the answer. I don't know what I'd… — Alexander Masters Copy Share Image
“As his mother drove him away on the day he was let out, Stuart broke the cardinal prison rule: like Lot's wife, he looked… — Alexander Masters Copy Share Image
“Revelation comes with these misunderstandings. Stuart's life and way of thinking momentarily exposed. Like a break in the hedgerow during the country lane part… — Alexander Masters Copy Share Image
“Tell you what,’ Stuart goads across the pavement at the huge officer who’s rolled down his window to wish us good-night, ‘since you got… — Alexander Masters Copy Share Image
“When life is this dull, you have to invent purpose. Collecting torn-up newspaper gives you a hobby, provides an anchoring intimacy with your surroundings,… — Alexander Masters Copy Share Image
