Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption

by Stephen King

the best way to figure out which folks God favors is by checking their bank accounts.

Andy had brains and he had heart. Norton was determined to use the one and crush the other.

Didn’t he succeed in spectacular fashion? You tell me!

Some birds are not meant to be caged, that’s all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure.

I remembered how Andy had brought in his five hundred dollars back in 1948, and I took out my story of him the same way.

That’s what a whole life in prison does for you, young man. It turns everyone in a position of authority into a master, and you into every master’s dog. Maybe you know you’ve become a dog, even in prison, but since everyone else in gray is a dog, too, it doesn’t seem to matter so much. Outside, it does.

Remember that hope is a good thing, Red, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

It always comes down to just two choices. Get busy living or get busy dying.