The Shawshank Redemption Quotes
Warden Samuel Norton : [ after Andy escapes ] I want him found. Not tomorrow, not after breakfast - *now*.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Red : [ narrating ] In 1966, Andy Dufresne escaped from Shawshank prison. All they found of him was a muddy set of prison clothes, a bar of soap, and an old rock hammer, damn near worn down to the nub. I remember thinking it would take a man six hundred years to tunnel through the wall with it. Old Andy did it in less than twenty. Oh, Andy loved geology. I imagine it appealed to his meticulous nature. An ice age here, million years of mountain building there. Geology is the study of pressure and time. That's all it takes really, pressure, and time. That, and a big goddamn poster. Like I said, in prison a man will do most anything to keep his mind occupied. Turns out Andy's favorite hobby was totin' his wall out into the exercise yard, a handful at a time. I guess after Tommy was killed, Andy decided he'd been here just about long enough. Andy did like he was told, buffed those shoes to a high mirror shine. The guards simply didn't notice. Neither did I... I mean, seriously, how often do you really look at a mans shoes? Andy crawled to freedom through five hundred yards of shit smelling foulness I can't even imagine, or maybe I just don't want to. Five hundred yards... that's the length of five football fields, just shy of half a mile.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Andy Dufresne : If they ever try to trace any of those accounts, they're gonna end up chasing a figment of my imagination.
Red : Well, I'll be damned. Did I say you were good? Shit, you're a Rembrandt!
Andy Dufresne : Yeah. The funny thing is - on the outside, I was an honest man, straight as an arrow. I had to come to prison to be a crook.
Red : Well, I'll be damned. Did I say you were good? Shit, you're a Rembrandt!
Andy Dufresne : Yeah. The funny thing is - on the outside, I was an honest man, straight as an arrow. I had to come to prison to be a crook.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Red : Ever bother you?
Andy Dufresne : I don't run the scams Red, I just process the profits. Fine line, maybe, but I also built that library and used it to help a dozen guys get their high school diploma. Why do you think the warden lets me do all that?
Red : To keep you happy and doing the laundry. Money instead of sheets.
Andy Dufresne : I don't run the scams Red, I just process the profits. Fine line, maybe, but I also built that library and used it to help a dozen guys get their high school diploma. Why do you think the warden lets me do all that?
Red : To keep you happy and doing the laundry. Money instead of sheets.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Tommy Williams : I don't read so good.
Andy Dufresne : Well. [ pause ]
Andy Dufresne : You don't read so *well*. Uh, we'll get to that.
Andy Dufresne : Well. [ pause ]
Andy Dufresne : You don't read so *well*. Uh, we'll get to that.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Red : [ narrating ] Andy Dufresne - who crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Red : [ narrating ] Forty years I been asking permission to piss. I can't squeeze a drop without say-so.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Andy Dufresne : What about you? What are you in here for?
Red : Murder, same as you.
Andy Dufresne : Innocent?
Red : [ shakes his head ] Only guilty man in Shawshank.
Red : Murder, same as you.
Andy Dufresne : Innocent?
Red : [ shakes his head ] Only guilty man in Shawshank.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Heywood : [ talking about Fat Ass ] Hey Tyrell. You pulling infirmary duty this week?
Tyrell : [ nods ] Yep.
Heywood : How's that winning horse of mine doing?
Tyrell : Dead. Hadley busted up his head pretty good. Doc went home for the night. Poor bastard laid there till this morning. By then, there was nothing we could do.
Tyrell : [ nods ] Yep.
Heywood : How's that winning horse of mine doing?
Tyrell : Dead. Hadley busted up his head pretty good. Doc went home for the night. Poor bastard laid there till this morning. By then, there was nothing we could do.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Fat Ass : You don't understand! I'm not supposed to be here!
Inmates : Me neither! They run this place like a fucking prison!
Inmates : Me neither! They run this place like a fucking prison!
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Andy Dufresne : [ in letter to Red ] Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Fat Ass : I don't belong here! I want to go home! I want my mother!
Another Prisoner : I had your mother, she wasn't that great!
Another Prisoner : I had your mother, she wasn't that great!
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Captain Hadley : What the Christ is this happy horseshit?
Prisoner : Hey, he took the Lord's name in vain! I'm tellin' the warden!
Captain Hadley : You'll be tellin' the warden about my baton up your ass!
Prisoner : Hey, he took the Lord's name in vain! I'm tellin' the warden!
Captain Hadley : You'll be tellin' the warden about my baton up your ass!
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Captain Hadley : [ to Andrew Dufresne ] You're gonna look real funny sucking my dick with no teeth.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Red : [ narrating ] We sat and drank with the sun on our shoulders and felt like free men. Hell, we could have been tarring the roof of one of our own houses. We were the lords of all creation. As for Andy - he spent that break hunkered in the shade, a strange little smile on his face, watching us drink his beer.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Red : [ narrating ] And that's how it came to pass that on the second-to-last day of the job, the convict crew that tarred the plate factory roof in the spring of forty-nine wound up sitting in a row at ten o'clock in the morning drinking icy cold, Bohemia-style beer, courtesy of the hardest screw that ever walked a turn at Shawshank State Prison.
Captain Hadley : Drink up while it's cold, ladies.
Red : [ narrating ] The colossal prick even managed to sound magnanimous.
Captain Hadley : Drink up while it's cold, ladies.
Red : [ narrating ] The colossal prick even managed to sound magnanimous.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Red : [ narrating ] You could argue he'd done it to curry favor with the guards. Or, maybe make a few friends among us cons. Me, I think he did it just to feel normal again, if only for a short while.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Captain Hadley : Dufresne! [ to Dekins ]
Captain Hadley : That's him. That's the one.
Guard Dekins : I'm Dekins. I was thinking about setting up some kind of trust fund for my kids educations.
Andy Dufresne : Oh, I see. Well, why don't we have a seat and talk it over. Brooks, do you have a piece of paper and a pencil? Thanks. So, Mr. Dekins...
Brooks : [ at lunchtime to the other prisoners ] And then Andy says, "Mr. Dekins, do you want your sons to go to Harvard... or Yale?"
Floyd : He didn't say that!
Brooks : God is my witness! Dekins just looked at him a second and then he laughed himself silly and afterwards he actually shook Andy's hand.
Heywood : My ass.
Brooks : Shook his hand! I near soiled myself, I mean all Andy needed was a suit and a tie and a little jiggly hula gal on his desk and he woulda been *Mister* Dufresne, if you please.
Red : Making a few friends, huh Andy?
Andy Dufresne : I wouldn't say friends. I'm a convicted murderer who provides sound financial planning - it's a wonderful pet to have.
Captain Hadley : That's him. That's the one.
Guard Dekins : I'm Dekins. I was thinking about setting up some kind of trust fund for my kids educations.
Andy Dufresne : Oh, I see. Well, why don't we have a seat and talk it over. Brooks, do you have a piece of paper and a pencil? Thanks. So, Mr. Dekins...
Brooks : [ at lunchtime to the other prisoners ] And then Andy says, "Mr. Dekins, do you want your sons to go to Harvard... or Yale?"
Floyd : He didn't say that!
Brooks : God is my witness! Dekins just looked at him a second and then he laughed himself silly and afterwards he actually shook Andy's hand.
Heywood : My ass.
Brooks : Shook his hand! I near soiled myself, I mean all Andy needed was a suit and a tie and a little jiggly hula gal on his desk and he woulda been *Mister* Dufresne, if you please.
Red : Making a few friends, huh Andy?
Andy Dufresne : I wouldn't say friends. I'm a convicted murderer who provides sound financial planning - it's a wonderful pet to have.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Red : [ narrating ] The following April Andy did tax returns for half the guards at Shawshank. Year after that he did them all including the warden's. Year after that they rescheduled the start of the intra-mural season to coincide with tax season. The guards on the opposing teams all remembered to bring their W2s.
Andy Dufresne : So Moresby prison issued you your gun but you actually had to pay for it.
Moresby Batter : Damn right. The holster too.
Andy Dufresne : You see that's tax deductible, you can write that off.
Andy Dufresne : So Moresby prison issued you your gun but you actually had to pay for it.
Moresby Batter : Damn right. The holster too.
Andy Dufresne : You see that's tax deductible, you can write that off.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Boggs : Now, I'm gonna open my fly and you're gonna swallow what I give ya to swallow. And after you swallow mine you're gonna swallow Rooster's cause ya done broke his nose and I think he oughta have something to show for it.
Andy Dufresne : Anything you put in my mouth you're gonna lose.
Boggs : Naw, you don't understand. You do that and I'll put all eight inches of steel in your ear.
Andy Dufresne : All right. But you should know that sudden serious brain injury causes the victim to bite down hard. In fact, I hear the bite reflex is so strong they have to pry the victims jaws open with a crowbar.
Boggs : Where do you get this shit?
Andy Dufresne : I read it. You know how to read, you ignorant fuck?
Andy Dufresne : Anything you put in my mouth you're gonna lose.
Boggs : Naw, you don't understand. You do that and I'll put all eight inches of steel in your ear.
Andy Dufresne : All right. But you should know that sudden serious brain injury causes the victim to bite down hard. In fact, I hear the bite reflex is so strong they have to pry the victims jaws open with a crowbar.
Boggs : Where do you get this shit?
Andy Dufresne : I read it. You know how to read, you ignorant fuck?
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Warden Samuel Norton : Lord! It's a miracle! Man up and vanished like a fart in the wind!
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
[ last lines ]
Red : [ narrating ] I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.
Red : [ narrating ] I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
[ Andy has asked Red to procure Rita Hayworth ]
Andy Dufresne : Can you get her?
Red : Take a few weeks.
Andy Dufresne : Weeks?
Red : Well yeah, Andy. I don't have her stuffed down the front of my pants right now, I'm sorry to say, but I'll get her. Relax!
Andy Dufresne : Can you get her?
Red : Take a few weeks.
Andy Dufresne : Weeks?
Red : Well yeah, Andy. I don't have her stuffed down the front of my pants right now, I'm sorry to say, but I'll get her. Relax!
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
[ watching Rita Hayworth in Gilda ]
Red : This is the part I really like, when she does that shit with her hair.
Red : This is the part I really like, when she does that shit with her hair.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Red : [ narrating ] Sometimes it makes me sad, though... Andy being gone. I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up DOES rejoice. But still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they're gone. I guess I just miss my friend.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Andy Dufresne : She was beautiful. God I loved her. I just didn't know how to show it, that's all. I killed her, Red. I didn't pull the trigger, but I drove her away. And that's why she died, because of me.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Red : You're gonna fit right in. Everyone in here is innocent, you know that? Heywood, what you in here for?
Heywood : Didn't do it. Lawyer fucked me.
Heywood : Didn't do it. Lawyer fucked me.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption