Home > Work > The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row
21 " There’s no sadder place to be in this world than a place where there’s no hope. "
― Anthony Ray Hinton , The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row
22 " Sometimes it felt like life was more a process of elimination than a series of choices. "
23 " On April 3, 2015, Anthony Ray Hinton was released from prison after spending nearly thirty years in solitary confinement on Alabama’s death row. "
24 " We weren’t monsters; we were guys trying to survive the best we could. "
25 " My mama always told me that you get more flies with honey than with vinegar. "
26 " Wouldn’t that be a choice? I was on death row not by my own choice, but I had made the choice to spend the last three years thinking about killing McGregor and thinking about killing myself. Despair was a choice. Hatred was a choice. Anger was a choice. I still had choices, and that knowledge rocked me. I may not have had as many as Lester had, but I still had some choices. I could choose to give up or to hang on. Hope was a choice. Faith was a choice. And more than anything else, love was a choice. Compassion was a choice. "
27 " You going to have people dislike you because of whatever reason they find to dislike you. That’s just how the world is. But you have to be knowing that you are responsible for how you treat others, you’re not responsible for how they treat you. Do you understand? I don’t care what people say about you—you don’t drop down to their level. You always treat someone better than what they treat you. Always. "
28 " I was afraid every single day on death row. And I also found a way to find joy every single day. I learned that fear and joy are both a choice. "
29 " sometimes life is so damn heavy the only choice is to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. "
30 " The death penalty is an enemy of grace, redemption and all who value life and recognize that each person is more than their worst act. "
31 " I forgive because that’s how my mother raised me. I forgive because I have a God who forgives. It’s hard not to wrap your life in a story—a story that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. A story that has logic and purpose and a bigger reason for why things turned out the way they did. I look for purpose in losing thirty years of my life. I try to make meaning out of something so wrong and so senseless. We all do. We have to find ways to recover after bad things happen. We have to make every ending be a happy ending. Every single one of us wants to matter. We want our lives and our stories and the choices we made or didn’t make to matter. "
32 " It’s hard to explain exactly what it feels like to be judged. There’s a shame to it. Even when you know you’re innocent. "
33 " But pain and tragedy and injustice happen—they happen to us all. I’d like to believe it’s what you choose to do after such an experience that matters the most—that truly changes your life forever. "
34 " I was born with the same gift from God we are all born with—the impulse to reach out and lessen the suffering of another human being. It was a gift, and we each had a choice whether to use this gift or not. "
35 " I was afraid every single day on death row. And I also found a way to find joy every single day. "
36 " What I didn’t understand was how any killing could be justified. Man didn’t have the right to take a life. The State didn’t have the right to take a life either "
37 " No one can understand what freedom means until they don’t have it. "
38 " You need to hold on to your hope. If you have hope, you have everything. "
39 " I was on death row not by my own choice, but I had made the choice to spend the last three years thinking about killing McGregor and thinking about killing myself. Despair was a choice. Hatred was a choice. Anger was a choice. I still had choices, and that knowledge rocked me. I may not have had as many as Lester had, but I still had some choices. I could choose to give up or to hang on. Hope was a choice. Faith was a choice. And more than anything else, love was a choice. Compassion was a choice. "
40 " Because there’s no way to know the exact second your life changes forever. You can only begin to know that moment by looking in the rearview mirror. And trust me when I tell you that you never, ever see it coming. "