“People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book.”
— Malcolm X
From The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965, with Alex Haley), about discovering books in Charlestown State Prison in 1948.
I entered prison at twenty unable to write a sentence. A man named Bimbi talked circles around me. So I copied the dictionary. Every word, every page. Then I read everything the prison library had. Lights out at ten, but I read on my knees by the corridor glow. One book cracked my world open. Then I couldn't stop. Whatever cage you're in right now, a book is a key they forgot to take.