Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption

by Stephen King

but that is the future… something cons teach themselves not to think about.

I got a reputation and I want to keep it.

But I don’t think solitary was the hardship for Andy that it was for some men. He got along with himself.

They trained him to like it inside the shithouse and then they threw him out.

the amount of expert financial help an individual or company needs rises in direct proportion to how many people that person or business is screwing.

Because guys like us, Red, we know there’s a third choice. An alternative to staying simon-pure or bathing in the filth and the slime. It’s the alternative that grown-ups all over the world pick. You balance off your walk through the hog-wallow against what it gains you. You choose the lesser of two evils and try to keep your good intentions in front of you. And I guess you judge how well you’re doing by how well you sleep at night… and what your dreams are like.”

“I was glad to go, me. Bad draft in that cell. All the time cold. He don’t let nobody touch his things. That’s okay. Nice man, never made fun. But big draft.”

I’ve still got them, and I take them down every so often and think about what a man can do, if he has time enough and the will to use it, a drop at a time.

This second type of guy knows there’s no harm in hoping for the best as long as you’re prepared for the worst.”

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.

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.

Sure I remember the name. Zihuatanejo. A name like that is just too pretty to forget.

I hope Andy is down there. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.