Quotes in The Shawshank Redemption

10 Most Profound Quotes in 'The Shawshank Redemption'



The Shawshank Redemption has many distinctive qualities, not the least of them being its extremely quotable dialogue and voice-over. The movie had the benefit of being based on a Stephen King novella, and writer-director Frank Darabont did some of his best work adapting it. The various characters in Shawshank spark to life, the story has compelling plot twists, the thematic core of the story stays intact, and the result is a film that is rewatchable for many of these reasons and more. Good lines affect all facets of storytelling, and this work is an example of how they can make them better.

Another thing dialogue can do is make you think long after the movie is over. The ability to work nuggets of wisdom into believable conversations is no small feat, which makes it all the more impressive when a movie like Shawshank comes along and provides a few dozen of them. One can go so far as to say that some of these lines are deeply meaningful, within and without the context of the movie itself. Below are possibly the ten most profound quotes in The Shawshank Redemption, which offer fascinating and emotionally powerful insights into the human condition and its complexities.

"And when they put you in that cell, and those bars slam home—that's when you know it's for real."
Ellis Boyd Redding (Morgan Freeman)
It's Andy's (Tim Robbins) first night in Shawshank, and Red (Morgan Freeman) is describing what it's like. He says it's the toughest night of all; they strip you, wash you with a hose, throw that powder on you that burns your skin, and march you into the cell block completely naked. Then, as Red narrates, "Whole life blown away in the blink of an eye. Nothing left but all the time in the world to think about it."

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The description here really puts the viewer in the prisoners' shoes. It's hard to capture the realization that one's life is essentially over, the finality of knowing that this day hasn't just been one long nightmare. The sense of those bars slamming home illustrates to us that there's no denying where you are anymore, making for a description that can include all sorts of other situations in which people feel trapped.

"Only one thing stops me: a promise I made to Andy."
Ellis Boyd Redding (Morgan Freeman)
After he's let out of prison, Red struggles as he gets caught up in basically the same everyday routine that Brooks was. As he narrates his experience, he says that all he does is think about how he can get himself into the kind of trouble to will get him sent back to Shawshank. He calls it a harsh truth, and it is. However, "only one thing stops me: a promise I made to Andy."


This man is institutionalized, a state of mind that's so overpowering that it led Brooks to suicide. In the end, the difference between Red and Brooks is that Red actually has someone waiting for him on the outside. It's not a guarantee, either; Red wasn't sure if he'd find Andy when he started his journey. But their bond is so strong that Red finds the will to stay out of trouble without even knowing if he'll succeed. Few other quotes capture the power of friendship so well, helping make Shawshank one of the best movies about friendship you can find.

"It's the only way they'd let me stay."
Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore)
In light of his sentence ending soon, Brooks (James Whitmore) decides to do something drastic. He grabs hold of Heywood (William Sadler) and holds a knife to his throat. Andy manages to convince Brooks to let Heywood go, at which point the old man drops the knife and starts sobbing: "It's the only way they'd let me stay." We have never seen Brooks like this before. Even when he hangs himself later, he at least stays composed on the outside.


If Brooks had killed Heywood, the authorities would have made him stay. Yet Brooks uses the word "let" here, conveying the notion that Shawshank is home for him. The guy is so desperate to be here that he's willing to kill another man, despite his otherwise gentle nature. More than anything else, this distills the idea of what it means to be institutionalized and helps make Brooks one of the most affecting characters in The Shawshank Redemption.

"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."
Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins)
Having gotten out, Red has followed Andy's directions to the note Andy left underneath a wall. Red opens the note, and we hear Andy's voice as it's read. Andy is inviting Red to join him in Zihuatanejo. At one point, the escaped prisoner claims that "hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies," in contrast with Red's earlier claim that "Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane." That was when they were still in jail, but we can see Red has found a change of heart now.

It's a simple but powerful message; hope gives us the strength to overcome obstacles that get in the way of happiness. The bit about how "no good thing ever dies" is a bit schmaltzy, but it aptly conveys the power of positivity over negativity, which works splendidly in a film about men who spent so many years in such a negative place.

"Prison is no fairy-tale world."
Ellis Boyd Redding (Morgan Freeman)
When Andy is first assaulted by Bogs (Mark Rolston) and the Sisters, the camera slowly pans away from them as Andy is held down and beaten. Meanwhile, Red's voice-over tells us all we need to know: "I wish I could tell you that Andy fought the good fight, and the Sisters let him be. I wish I could tell you that, but prison is no fairy-tale world." The implication is that Andy was raped by these men, and the following montage informs us that this continued to happen for the next two years.

It's a brutal part of the story, and the quote is so frank that it underscores its realism. This quote lets the audience know that this drama isn't going to give a sterilized version of the prison system. Awful things happen to people, especially when they're incarcerated, and sometimes there's nothing they can do about it.

"It was in here. And in here."
Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins)
Andy was in the hole for two weeks, and he looks awful once he's out. The others don't believe him when he says it's the easiest time he's ever done, but Andy assures them that Mozart was down in the hole with him. When one of the guys asks if they let him bring the record player down there, Andy points at his head, "It was in here," then at his heart, "And in here." He explains, "That's the beauty of music; they can't get that from you."

The fact that we can remember songs well enough to hum them to ourselves, or even inaudibly replay them in our heads without the literal music playing, is a beautiful thing. By extension, imagination can help us take our minds off of whatever ails us. In this case, it filled the void in both Andy's mind (which might otherwise have gone a little crazy) and soul (which otherwise might have fallen into despair). Overall, it's a lovely way to meld the ideas of freedom and memory.

"Salvation lies within."
Warden Norton (Bob Gunton) and Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins)
When Warden Norton (Bob Gunton) arrives for Andy's first random room inspection, he almost steals the prisoner's Bible by accident. As the warden hands it to him, he says that "Salvation lies within." He feels the Bible helps the soul find inner peace, goodness, and redemption. However, one need not use this quote in a strictly Biblical context. After all, after Andy has broken out of prison, Norton finds that the escapee carved a hole in the Bible's pages (very disrespectful) and wrote in it, "Salvation lies within."

The capacity for the human will to bring about its deliverance from harm and hardship couldn't be worded any better. It's basically saying that no one is going to save you but yourself. Whether one takes faith in God or one inhabits a secular faith in oneself, the weight of this term holds firm and true.

"These walls are funny: first you hate them, then you get used to them. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them."

Ellis Boyd Redding (Morgan Freeman)
Brooks just had an episode in the library; he nearly cut Heywood's throat, and now the gang is talking about it in the courtyard. No one can rationalize what happened except Red, who insists that prison can become strangely necessary for someone: "That's institutionalized." That's not a justification for what Brooks did, of course, but it does explain why he nearly killed someone. It wasn't about violence; it was about staying in Shawshank.

This movie takes place over a long time, and, in many ways, it's about how people can change over time. When Red describes how the repetition of their lives in prison eventually numbs them to their hatred for it, it comes across as true for many different contexts. Then, when he says you can even depend on them, he's speaking to how the individual's identity can become so used to the routine that any setting outside of it is terrifying and alien. Overall, the process of becoming institutionalized is concisely and tragically expressed here.

"Get busy living, or get busy dying."
Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) and Ellis Boyd Redding (Morgan Freeman)
Now that Tommy (Gil Bellows) has been murdered and Andy is out of his two-month-long ordeal in the hole, he talks to Red about where he'd like to go when he gets out. He wants to get a nice place in Mexico, right on the Pacific Ocean, and he pulls Red into the dream as well. Red reminds him that these are just pipe dreams, so Andy says that "it comes down to a simple choice, really: get busy living, or get busy dying." In other words, you're either actively trying to improve your life, or you're giving up.

When Red is let out, he repeats the same thing through voice-over. It's particularly effective coming from his mouth, as it comes up in a much more uplifting context. He's chosen to get busy living and find Andy, his voice so full of confidence and hope that the audience is rooting for him. Catchy yet profound quotes like this can apply to life in general, too, which surely played a fundamental part in The Shawshank Redemption's cult classic status..

"I want to talk to him. I want to talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can't."
Ellis Boyd Redding (Morgan Freeman)
Another decade, another parole hearing. This time, however, Red doesn't say what he usually says. His more nuanced, completely honest response leads to one of the most famous monologues of all time in perhaps Morgan Freeman's best role. At the end, Red says he wishes he could speak to his younger self, but he can't: "That kid's long gone, and this old man is all that's left. I gotta live with that."

Through this hypothetical scenario, we can feel how much he has matured. It also conveys how little that really matters, given that he'll always be heavy with guilt for what he did so long ago that there would be practically no resemblance between his younger self and current self. Alongside Freeman's delivery, there is no more profound cinematic example of deep, decades-long regret for something that was entirely your fault and which you take full responsibility for.