Quotes from

"Here's where it makes the most sense. You need it so you forget -- forget that there are places in the world that aren't made of stone. That there's a -- there's a -- there's something inside that's yours, that they can't touch." --Andy

"That's the beauty of music. They can't take that away from you." --Andy

"I hope I can make it across the border; I hope the Pacific is as blue as I dreamed it is; I hope to see my friend again, and shake his hand, I hope." --Red

"Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies." --Red (reading a letter from Andy)

"I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are better left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and it makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a great place dares to dream. It was as if some beautiful bird had flapped into our drab little cage and made these walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free." --Red

"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. Still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they're gone. I guess I just miss my friend." --Red

"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 the break hunkered in the shade, a strange little smile on his face, watching us drink his beer." --Red