“Yes, she is the fruit that willSustain me and yes, she bringsA rain that I know can chillBut it is a rain so sweet and singsA song my soul insistsThat I follow, if I would existAs more than I have ever, ever beenIf my mother calls it evil, then I embrace the sin”

“Sometimes I feel like I have walked into the middle of a movie. Maybe I can make my own movie. The film will be the story of my life. No, not my life, but of this experience. I'll call it what the lady who is the prosecutor called me. MONSTER.”

“Can you become The hope I need? Can you help me be More than it is written in my future Or past? Is there another me to find?”

“I know I'm tired of thinking about what I should have done yesterday. I know I'm just tired. If I knew what to do with my life, how to fix it up, I would have done it a long time ago. You can't dig that? You think I want to live like I'm somebody's throwaway?”

“On the streets of the city They have taken my Who-I-Am As well as my What-I-Was And now I am desperate for them both Again”

“Love came easy, but it just wasn't for me.It flew away like swallows on a summer evening.Love sang softly, but it just wasn't to me.Was I a fool to give my love, to give my soul, and more away?My heart aches with longing, cries each night,As I just fall apart.—Carmen, singing "Love Has Flown Away”

“In a way it was like a bunch of guys in a game. They were falling behind every minute that passed, but they had lost interest in the score. It was as if they were just a ton behind and had given up on the win. And maybe deep inside they didn't want to peep the score, maybe they knew what was happening but just didn't want to think about it anymore. I could understand that. I had played enough ball in my life, and was deep enough into my game to know I had to be in the hunt for a win or I could lose who I was. And once I lost who I was, my inner me, then all the CDs and all the iPods and all the bling in the world wasn't going to make it right. The strange thing was that everybody was feeling the same thing, that there was a huge game going on, and that the game was going to decide who was a winner and who lost. But so many of the brothers on the corner didn't have a play...I could feel for them because they were just like me in most ways, thinking that everybody should have a number, everybody should have the same playing time, and knowing it wasn't going to happen.”