Bogs [to Andy]
Hey, anybody come at you yet? Anybody get to you yet? Hey, we all need friends in here. I could be a friend to you. Hey, hard to get. I like that.
Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding
Morgan Freeman · 35 quotes
Andy Dufresne
Tim Robbins · 29 quotes
Samuel Norton
5 quotes
Warden Samuel Norton
Bob Gunton · 5 quotes
Heywood
William Sadler · 4 quotes
Brooks Hatlen
James Whitmore · 3 quotes
Floyd
Brian Libby · 3 quotes
Tommy
Gil Bellows · 3 quotes
Most scenes together: Andy Dufresne & Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding (11), Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding & Heywood (4), Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding & Floyd (3)
The Shawshank Redemption quotes
Page 1 of 5 Bogs All Andy needed was a suit and a tie and a little jiggly hula gal on his desk, he would've been Mister Dufresne.
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.
D.A.
We have the accused at the scene of the crime. We have footprints, tire tracks. We have bullets strewn on the ground which bear his fingerprints. A broken bourbon bottle, likewise with fingerprints. And most of all, we have a beautiful young woman and her lover lying dead in each other's arms. They had sinned. But was their crime so great as to merit a death sentence?...A revolver holds six bullets, not eight. I submit that this was not a hot-blooded crime of passion. That, at least, could be understood if not condoned. No - this was revenge of a much more brutal and cold blooded nature. Consider this. Four bullets per victim. Not six shots fired but eight. That means that he fired the gun empty and then stopped to reload so that he could shoot each of them again. An extra bullet per lover, right in the head.
I had Mr. Mozart to keep me company...[He points and taps his head] It was in here. [And he gestures over his heart] And in here. That's the beauty of music. They can't get that from you. Haven't you ever felt that way about music?...Here's where it makes the most sense. You need it so we don't forget...that there are places in the world that aren't made out of stone, that there's, there's somethin' inside that they can't get to, that they can't touch. It's yours.
What are you talkin' about?
Hope.
Hope? Let me tell you something, my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane. It's got no use on the inside. You'd better get used to that idea.
Like Brooks did?
I'm done. Everything stops. Get someone else to run your scams.
Norton
Nothing stops! Nothing! Or you will do the hardest time there is. No more protection from the guards. I'll pull you out of that one-bunk Hilton and cast you down with the sodomites. You'll think you got **** by a train. And the library? Gone! Sealed off brick by brick! We'll have us a little book-barbecue in the yard. They'll see the flames for miles. We'll dance around it like wild Injuns. Do you understand me? Are you catching my drift? Or am I being obtuse? (to guard)Give him another month [in solitary] to think about it.
My wife used to say I'm a hard man to know. Like a closed book. Complained about it all the time. 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, the way I am.
That don't make you a murderer. Bad husband, maybe. Feel bad about it if you want to, but you didn't pull the trigger.
No, I didn't. Somebody else did and I wound up in here. Bad luck, I guess.
Think you'll ever get out of here?
Me? Yeah, one day when I got a long, white beard and two or three marbles rolling around upstairs, they'll let me out.
I tell you where I'd go: Zihuatanejo.
Say what?
Zihuatanejo. It's in Mexico. A little place on the Pacific Ocean. You know what the Mexicans say about the Pacific?
No.
They say it has no memory. That's where I want to live the rest of my life: a warm place with no memory. Open up a little hotel, right on the beach, buy some worthless old boat, and fix it up new. Take my guests out charter fishing.
Zihuatanejo.
In a place like that, I could use a man that knows how to get things.
I don't think I could make it on the outside, Andy. I been in here most of my life. I'm an institutional man now.
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.
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.
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?
I read it. You know how to read, you ignorant ****?
D.A.
Mr. Dufresne, describe the confrontation you had with your wife the night that she was murdered.
It was very bitter. She said she was glad I knew, that she hated all the sneaking around. She said she wanted a divorce in Reno...I told her I would not grant one.
D.A.
'I'll see you in Hell before I see you in Reno.' Those were the words you used, Mr. Dufresne, according to the testimony of your neighbors.
District Attorney
Mr. Dufresne, describe the confrontation you had with your wife the night she was murdered.
[on the stand]
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.
District Attorney
What was your response?
I told her I would not grant one.
District Attorney
"I'll see you in Hell before I see you in Reno", those were the words you used, Mr. Dufresne, according to the testimony of your neighbors.
If they say so. I really don't remember that I was upset.
District Attorney
What happened after you argued with your wife?
She packed a bag...she packed a bag to go and stay with Mr. Quentin.
District Attorney
Glenn Quentin. Golf pro at the Snowden Hills Country Club. The man that you had recently discovered was your wife's lover. Did you follow her?
I went to a few bars first. Later, I drove to his house to confront them, but they weren't home. So I parked in the turnout and waited.
District Attorney
With what intention?
I'm not sure. I was confused...drunk. I think...mostly I wanted to scare them.
District Attorney
When they arrived, you went up to the house and murdered them.
No. I was sobering up. I got back in the car and I drove home to sleep it off. Along the way, I stopped and I threw my gun into the Royal River. I've been very clear on this point.
District Attorney
Well, where I get hazy is when the cleaning woman shows up the following morning, and finds your wife in bed with her lover riddled with 38.caliber bullets. Now, does that strike you as a fantastic coincidence, Mr. Dufresne, or is it just me?
Yes it does.
District Attorney
And yet, you still maintain that you threw your gun into the river before the murders took place. That's very convenient.
It's the truth.
District Attorney
The police dragged that river for 3 days, and nary a gun was found. So, there could be no comparison made between your gun and the bullets taken from the blood-stained corpses of the victims. And that also...is very convenient. Isn't it, Mr. Dufresne?
Since I am innocent of this crime, sir, I find it decidedly inconvenient that the gun was never found.
District Attorney
Ladies and gentlemen, you've heard all the evidence, you know all the facts. We have the accused at the scene of the crime, we have tire tracks, we have bullets strewn on the ground that bear his fingerprints. A broken bourbon bottle, likewise with fingerprints, and most of all, we have a beautiful young woman and her lover, lying dead in each other's arms. They had sinned. But was their crime so great as to merit a death sentence? Now while you think about that, consider this: a revolver holds six bullets, not eight. I submit that this was not a hot-blooded crime of passion; that at least could be understood if not condoned. No. This was revenge of a much more brutal, cold-blooded nature. Consider this: four bullets per victim. Not six shots fired, but eight. That means that he fired the gun empty, and then stopped to reload, so that he could shoot each of them again: an extra bullet per lover, right in the head.
Judge You strike me as a particularly icy and remorseless man, Mr. Dufresne. It chills my blood to look at you. By the power vested in me by the State of Maine, I hereby order you to serve two life sentences back-to-back, one for each of your victims. So be it.
Andy, we're getting to be kind of friends, aren't we?
Yeah, I guess.
Can I ask you something? Why'd you do it?
I'm innocent, Red. Just like everybody else here. What are you in here for?
Murder. Same as you.
Innocent?
Only guilty man in Shawshank.
In here, I'm the guy who can get things for you, sure, but outside all you need is the Yellow Pages. Hell, I wouldn't know where to begin. Pacific Ocean? Shit. Might scare me to death, something that big.
Not me. I didn't shoot my wife, and I didn't shoot her lover. Whatever mistakes I made, I've paid for them and then some. That hotel, that boat, I don't think that's too much to ask.
I don't think you ought to be doing this to yourself, Andy. This is just shitty pipe dreams. I mean, Mexico is way the hell down there and you're in here, and that's the way it is.
Yeah, right. That's the way it is. It's down there and I'm in here. I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'.
Red. Name's Red.
Red. Why do they call you that?
Maybe it's because I'm Irish.
A month in the hole. That's longest damn stretch I ever heard of.
It's all my fault.
Oh, bullshit. You didn't pull the trigger, and you certainly didn't convict him.
Ellis, are you saying that Andy is innocent? I mean, for real innocent?
Well, it looks that way.
Sweet Jesus. How long has he been here now?
1947. What is that, nineteen years?
Nineteen years...