West of Memphis (2012)

Damien Wayne Echols: Self

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Quotes 

• Damien Wayne Echols : The thing I like most about time is that it's not real. It's all in the head. Sure, it's a useful trick if you wanna meet someone at a specific place in the universe to have tea or coffee. But that's all it is, a trick. There's no such thing as the past, it exists only in the memory. There's no such thing as the future, it exists only in our imagination. If our watches were truly accurate the only thing they would ever say is now.

• Damien Wayne Echols : I don't normally read a lot of fiction anymore. I haven't for several years, but a couple of days ago, someone sent me the new Stephen King book. You know, I started reading his books when I was probably 10 or 11 years old. People have always undervalued him. You know, they look at him as this, um, hack. This hack writer who churns out horror novels. In all of his books at the end, he always addresses the reader. You know, he thanks you for going on this voyage with him, and so I wanted to read it to you. "All right I think we've been down here in the dark long enough. There's a whole other world upstairs. Take my hand, Constant Reader, and I'll be happy to lead you back into the sunshine. I'm happy to go there because I believe most people are essentially good. I know that I am. It's you I'm not entirely sure of."

• Damien Wayne Echols : I've jokingly said to Lorri before that I think that, in a lot of ways, I may have brought this on myself, this entire situation. Because when I was a child I knew what my passion was, I knew what my drive was, I knew what my desire was. I loved magic. I would say to myself, you know, these names that people think of. I would say, "One day my name is gonna eclipse all of them." I'm gonna be the greatest magician there's ever been." And I had no idea that that meant I would have 20 years to sit alone in a prison cell and practice and study. But that's a word that you don't even use here, because when people hear the word "magic," anything even remotely connected to magic has to be evil in some kind of way.

• Damien Wayne Echols : Most people think that this case is something extraordinary. It's spectacular in some sort of way, and it's not. Burnett and Fogleman thought they could make a name for themselves off of this case. Because, really, you're dealing with three kids who were bottom of the barrel, poor white trash that nobody's ever gonna ask another question about. He thought they would say, "Guilty." This whole thing would be swept under the rug. The state would kill me. Jason and Jessie would spend their lives in prison. He'd move up the political ladder. That's all he cared about. This case is nothing out of the ordinary. This happens all the time.

• Damien Wayne Echols : I think this case was never about justice because they knew we didn't do this. Fogleman knew we did not do this.

• [last lines] 

  Lorri Davis : [reading a letter Damien wrote]  "My dearest Lorri, I love the letter I got from you today. The one about us changing. You were right, we should be looking forward, not back. You give me the strength to face anything, but I also know that not everyone is like you. If they were, then everyone would be in love. I love the way Master and Margarita ends. The way they get to spend eternity together, alone. That they are granted peace."

  Damien Wayne Echols : "And you are left to wonder what adventures they'll have next."