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Shawshank Redemption Quotes (1994)
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Famous Shawshank Redemption Quotations
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When this popular prison drama was released in 1994, some critics complained that the movie was too long (142 minutes) to sustain its story. Those complaints miss the point, because the passage of time is crucial to this story about patience, the squeaky wheels of justice, and the growth of a life-long friendship. Only when the film reaches its final, emotionally satisfying scene do you fully understand why writer-director Frank Darabont (adapting a novella by Stephen King) allows the story to unfold at its necessary pace, and the effect is dramatically rewarding. Tim Robbins plays a banker named Andy who's sent to Shawshank Prison on a murder charge, but as he gets to know a life-term prisoner named Red (Morgan Freeman), we realize there's reason to believe the banker's crime was justifiable. We also realize that Andy's calm, quiet exterior hides a great reserve of patience and fortitude, and Red comes to admire this mild-mannered man who first struck him as weak and unfit for prison life. So it is that The Shawshank Redemption builds considerable impact as a prison drama that defies the conventions of the genre (violence, brutality, riots) to illustrate its theme of faith, friendship, and survival. Nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Actor, and Screenplay, it's a remarkable film that signaled the arrival of a promising new filmmaker--a film that many movie lovers count among their all-time favorites. --Jeff Shannon
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- Andy Dufresne: Can you get her?
Red: It'll take a few weeks.
Andy Dufresne: Weeks?
Red: Well yeah, Andy. I don't have her stuffed down my pants right now, sorry to say, but relax, I'll get her. »
- Andy Dufresne: Dear Warden, You were right. Salvation lies within. »
- Andy Dufresne: Get busy living, or get busy dying. »
- Andy Dufresne: Here's where it makes the most sense. You need it so you don't forget. Forget that there are places in the world that aren't made out of stone. That there's a - there's a - there's something inside that's yours, that they can't touch. »
- Andy Dufresne: I had to go to prison to become a criminal. »
- Andy Dufresne: I have no enemies here.
Red: Wait a while. Word has it the Sisters have taken quite a likin' to you. Especially Bogs.
Andy Dufresne: I don't suppose it would help if I told them that I'm not homosexual.
Red: Neither are they. You have to be human first. They don't qualify. »
- Andy Dufresne: I just don't understand what happened in there.
Heywood: Old man's as crazy as a rat in a tin shithouse, is what.
Red: Oh Heywood, that's enough out of you!
Ernie: I heard he you shittin' in your pants!
Heywood: Hey, fuck you!
Red: Would you knock it off? Brooks ain't no bug. He's just institutionalized.
Heywood: Institutionalized, my ass. »
- 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. »
- Andy Dufresne: It's my life. Don't you understand? IT'S MY LIFE! »
- Andy Dufresne: Maybe you should try a new career.
Tommy Williams: What's that?
Andy Dufresne: I said, since you don't have much success as a thief, you should try a new career.
Tommy Williams: Oh, yeah? Well, what do you know about it Al Capone? What're you in here for?
Andy Dufresne: Me? Lawyer fucked me. Everybody in here's innocent. Didn't you know that? »
- 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 pushed her away. And that's why she died, because of me. »
- Andy Dufresne: That's the beauty of music. They can't take that away from you. »
- Andy Dufresne: What was his name?
Heywood: What did you say?
Andy Dufresne: I was just wondering if anybody knew his name.
Heywood: Fuck do you care, new fish? Doesn't fuckin' matter what his name was. He's dead. »
- Boggs: Hey, anybody come at you yet? Anybody get to you yet?
Boggs: Hey, we all need friends in here. I could be a friend to you.
Boggs: Hard to get. I like that... »
- Boggs: Now, I'm gonna open my fly and you're gonna swallow what I give ya to swallow. And when 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? »
- Brooks: Dear Fellas, I can't believe how fast things move on the outside. I saw an automobile once when I was a kid. But, now they're everywhere. The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry. The parole board got me into this halfway house called the Brewer, and a job bagging groceries at the Foodway. It's hard work, and I try to keep up, but my hands hurt most of the time. »
- Brooks: Easy peasy japanesey. »
- Captain Hadley: If I hear so much as a mouse fart in here the rest of the night I swear by God and sonny Jesus you will all visit the infirmary. Every last motherfucker in here. »
- Captain Hadley: The government reaches inside your shirt and squeezes until your tit turns purple. »
- Captain Hadley: What is your malfunction, you fat barrel of monkey spunk? »
- Captain Hadley: What the Christ is this happy horseshit?
Captain Hadley: You'll be tellin' the warden about my baton up your ass! »
- Captain Hadley: You eat when we say you eat. You shit when we say you shit. You piss when we say you piss. You got that, you maggot dick motherfucker? »
- District Attorney: And that also is very convenient, isn't it, Mr. Dufresne?
Andy Dufresne: Since I am innocent of this crime, I find it decidedly INCONVENIENT that the gun was never found. »
- District Attorney: Mr. Dufresne, describe the confrontation you had with your wife the night that she was murdered.
Andy Dufresne: It was very bitter. She said she was glad I knew, that she hated all the sneaking around. And she said that she wanted a divorce in Reno. »
- Fat Ass: I'm not supposed to be here! I want to go home! I want my ma! »
- Fat Ass: You don't understand. I'm not supposed to be here!
Captain Hadley: I'm not going to count to three. I'm not even going to count to one. You WILL shut the fuck up NOW or I'll sing you a lullaby! »
- Floyd: Red, I do believe you're talking out of your ass. »
- Floyd: Takin' bets today, Red?
Red: Smokes or coins, bettor's choice.
Floyd: Smokes. Put me down for two.
Red: All right, who's your horse?
Floyd: That little sack o' shit. Eighth, eighth from the front. He'll be first.
Heywood: Aw, bullshit. I'll call that action. You out some smokes, son, let me tell you!
Floyd: Well, Heywood, you so smart, you call it!
Heywood: I'll take the chubby fat-ass there. Fifth from the front. Put me down for a quarter deck. »
- Heywood: It's a fine morning, ain't it? You know why it's a fine morning, don't ya? Come on, roll 'em out. I want all lined, like a pretty little chorus line.
Heywood: Aw, yes. Richmond, Virginia.
Floyd: Smell my ass. »
- Heywood: The Count of Monte Crisco...
Floyd: That's "Cristo" you dumb shit.
Heywood: ...by Alexandree Dumb-ass. Dumb-ass.
Andy Dufresne: Dumb-ass? "Dumas". You know what it's about? You'll like it, it's about a prison break.
Red: Well we should file that one under "Educational" too, oughten we? »
- Red: Does it 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. »
- Red: Geology is the study of pressure and time. Thats all it takes really... pressure... and time... That, and big goddamn poster. »
- Red: I could see why some of the boys took him for snobby. He had a quiet way about him, a walk and a talk that just wasn't normal around here. He strolled, like a man in a park without a care or a worry in the world, like he had on an invisible coat that would shield him from this place. Yeah, I think it would be fair to say... I liked Andy from the start. »
- Red: I'd like to think that the last thing that went through his head, other than that bullet, was how the hell Andy Dufresne ever got the best of him. »
- Red: If you wanted a toothbrush, I wouldn't ask questions. I'd just quote a price. A toothbrush, see,is a non-lethal sort of object. »
- Red: King me.
Andy Dufresne: Chess. Now there's a game of kings.
Red: What?
Andy Dufresne: Civilized. Strategic...
Red: ...and a total fuckin' mystery. I hate it. »
- Red: Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane. »
- Red: Makin' yourself some friends, Andy.
Andy Dufresne: I wouldn't say "friends". I'm a convicted murderer who provides sound financial planning. »
- Red: One day, when I have a gray beard and a few marbles rollin' around upstairs, that's when they'll let me out. »
- Red: Rehabilitated? Now let me see. You know, I don't have any idea what that means.
Red: I know what you think it means, sonny. To me it's just a made up word; a politician's word. So young fellas like yourself can wear a suit, and tie, and have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I sorry for what I did?
Red: There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret. Not because I'm in here, or because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then then, a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try and talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can't. That kid's long gone and this old man is all that's left. I got to live with that. Rehabilitated? It's just a bullshit word. So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth, I don't give a shit. »
- Red: That tall drink of water with the silver spoon up his ass. »
- Red: These walls are kind of funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, gets so you depend on them. That's institutionalized. They send you here for life, that's exactly what they take. The part that counts, anyways. »
- Red: You gonna open it, or stick your thumb up your butt?
Tommy Williams: Thumb up my butt sounds better. »
- Red: You're gonna fit right in. Everyone in here is innocent. Heywood, what're you in here for?
Heywood: Didn't do it. Lawyer fucked me. »
- Rita Hayworth:
Red: I love when she does that shit with her hair. »
- Tommy Williams: I don't read so good.
Andy Dufresne: Well.
Andy Dufresne: You don't read so *well*. Uh, we'll get to that. »
- Tommy Williams: So I'm backing out the door, right, and I got the TV, like this; it was a big old thing, I couldn't see shit; suddenly I hear this voice, "Police, kid, hands in the air." You know, I was standing there, holdin' on to that TV, so finally the voice says, "You hear what I said, boy?" And I say, "Yes sir, I sure did, but if I drop this fucking thing you got me on destruction of property too." »
- Warden Samuel Norton: Do you enjoy working in the laundry?
Andy Dufresne: No sir, not especially. »
- Warden Samuel Norton: I believe in two things: discipline and the Bible. Here you'll receive both. Put your trust in the Lord; your ass belongs to me. Welcome to Shawshank. »
- Warden Samuel Norton: Lord! It's a miracle! Man up and vanished like a fart in the wind! »
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