“No one stay true. It’s like an addiction cuz ain’t no really… it’s all *fiction*.”

“Addiction is a monster; it lives inside, and feeds off of you, takes from you, controls you, and destroys you. It is a beast that tears you apart, rips out your soul, and laughs at your weakness. It is a stone wall that stands to keep you in and the rest out. It is a shadow that always lurks behind you, waiting to strike. Addiction lives in everyone’s mind, sitting, staring, waiting…”

“Addiction should never be treated as a crime. It has to be treated as a health problem. We do not send alcoholics to jail in this country. Over 500,000 people are in our jails who are nonviolent drug users.”

“One drink is too many for me and a thousand not enough.”

“Shame was an emotion he had abandoned years earlier. Addicts know no shame. You disgrace yourself so many times you become immune to it.”

“When you can stop you don’t want to, and when you want to stop, you can’t…”

“I used to think a drug addict was someone who lived on the far edges of society. Wild-eyed, shaven-headed and living in a filthy squat. That was until I became one…”

“At the root of all addiction is pain.”

“Recovery is a process. It takes time. It takes patience. It takes everything you’ve got.”

“The chains of alcohol are too light to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.”