Billy Hayes quotes

View Quote [voiceover] To the Turks, everything is "shurla burla", which means "like this, like that". You never know what will happen. All foreigners are "ayip", they're considered dirty. So is homosexuality, it's a big crime here, but most of them do it every chance they get. There are about thousand things that are "ayip", for instance, you can stab or shoot somebody below the waist but not above because that's intent to kill. So everyone runs around stabbing everyone else in the ass. That's what they call Turkish revenge. I know it must all sound crazy to you, but this place is crazy.

View Quote [to the Turkish court] I just wish for once that you could be in my shoes, Mr. Prosecutor, and then you would know something that you don't know: mercy! That the concept of a society is based on the quality of that mercy; its sense of fair play; its sense of justice! But I guess that's like asking a bear to shit in the toilet. [In the red border clamshell VHS, He says: But I guess that's like asking a bear to use a potty trainer.]

View Quote [to the Turkish court] For a nation of pigs, it sure is funny you don't eat'em! Jesus Christ forgave the bas****, but I can't! I hate! I hate you! I hate your nation! And I hate your people! And I **** your sons and daughters because they're pigs! [Red border clamshell VHS: And I hate your sons and daughters because they're pigs!] You're a pig! You're all pigs.

View Quote Dear Susan: Poor Jimmy was caught and beaten so badly he got a severe hernia, and lost a testicle. He's been in the sanitarium for months. In comparison, my problems seem very small.

View Quote What is a crime? What is punishment? It seems to vary from time to time and place to place. What's legal today is suddenly illegal tomorrow because society says it's so, and what's illegal yesterday is suddenly legal because everybody's doin' it, and you can't put everybody in jail. I'm not saying this is right or wrong. I'm just saying that's the way it is. But I've spent 3 1/2 years of my life in your prison, and I think I've paid for my error, and if it's your decision today to sentence me to more years, then I... [he becomes overcome with anger]