Bobby Blake

Bobby Blake is one of Carroll's junkie friends who gets high and performs ridiculous, illegal acts.

Mr. Bluster

Mr. Bluster is the principal at the Catholic private school Carroll attends on scholarship. Bluster gets Carroll released early from Riker's juvenile prison.

Brian Browning

Brian Browning is one of Carroll's junkie friends and is one of two men who rent the apartment that serves as Headquarters—the local junkie hangout. When Carroll is strung out and needing a heroin fix, Browning goes to get it for him while Jim waits with his older lover. Browning notes that junkies curl up into fetal positions because they are trying to get back to the womb.

Jim Carroll

Carroll is the author and narrator of The Basketball Diaries, an autobiographical account of Carroll's coming of age on New York's tough streets. In the first entries, Carroll is a thirteen-year-old who...