“That's my window. This minuteSo gently did I alightFrom sleep--was still floating in it.Where has my life its limitAnd where begins the night?I could fancy all things around meWere nothing but I as yet;Like a crystal's depth, profoundlyMute, translucent, unlit.I have space to spare inside meFor the stars, too: so full of roomFeels my heart; so lightlyWould it let go of him, whomFor all I know I have startedTo love, it may be to hold.Strange, as if never charted,Stares my fortune untold.Why is it I am beddedBeneath this infinitude,Fragrant like a meadow,Hither and thither moved,Calling out, yet fearingSomeone might hear the cry,Destined to disappearingWithin another I.”

“What have I done?Sweet Jesus, what have I done?Become a thief in the night,Become a dog on the runAnd have I fallen so far,And is the hour so lateThat nothing remains but the cry of my hate,The cries in the dark that nobody hears,Here where I stand at the turning of the years?If there's another way to goI missed it twenty long years agoMy life was a war that could never be wonThey gave me a number and murdered ValjeanWhen they chained me and left me for deadJust for stealing a mouthful of breadYet why did I allow that manTo touch my soul and teach me love?He treated me like any otherHe gave me his trustHe called me brotherMy life he claims for God aboveCan such things be?For I had come to hate the worldThis world that always hated meTake an eye for an eye!Turn your heart into stone!This is all I have lived for!This is all I have known!One word from him and I'd be backBeneath the lash, upon the rackInstead he offers me my freedomI feel my shame inside me like a knifeHe told me that I have a soul,How does he know?What spirit comes to move my life?Is there another way to go?I am reaching, but I fallAnd the night is closing inAnd I stare into the voidTo the whirlpool of my sinI'll escape now from the worldFrom the world of Jean ValjeanJean Valjean is nothing nowAnother story must begin!”

“I may be older and wiser, I may have lived another life since then, but I know that when my time eventually comes, the memories of that day will be the final images that float through my mind. I still love her, you see, and I‟ve never removed my ring. In all these years I‟ve never felt the desire to do so.”

“I am burning. I have to live, I have to sing, I want to transform myself into a thousand different characters and carry their life with me onto the stage where it's so bright and so dark at the same time, just knowing there are three thousand people out there longing to be swept away by the passion that's about to flood out from scarlet curtains, to this I consecrate my body and my soul, I can give no more than all of myself, I feel my heart is a throbbing engine and my voice is the valve, like a wailing train, it has to sing or blow up, there's too much fuel, too much fire, and what am I to do with this voice if I can't let it out, it's not just singing. I am here as a speck, but I don't feel scared or about to be blown away, I feel like all New York is a warm embrace just waiting to enfold me. I am in love. But not with a person. I am passionately in love with my life.”

“And to the casual observer it looks like I have moved on since I go around wearing my little happy mask all day. I smile and laugh and carry on like my heart's still in one piece, but beneath it all, I am dying.”

“For one day there will be nothing left, yet we will have something. -me-I tried to wait for my life to begin. Something has to happen. Like an amazing boy. I know he's out there. I just have to find him.”