Shawshank Redemption - Quotes from the best Movie Ever

I love the movie "the Shawshank Redemption" for a number of reasons. #1 is the cast. Anything with Morgan Freeman is going to move close to the top of my list. #2 is the story... a story of hope in the faces of soul crushing incarceration, and #3. is the book it was based on - "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" by Stephen King. Here are some of my favorite quotes... starting with the absolute best:

• "I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. 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." ~ Red (last lines of the movie)


• In 1966, Andy Dufresne escaped from Shawshank prison. All they found of him was a muddy set of prison clothes, a bar of soap, and an old rock hammer, damn near worn down to the nub. I used to think it would take six-hundred years to tunnel under the wall with it. Old Andy did it in less than twenty. Oh, Andy loved geology. I guess it appealed to his meticulous nature. An ice age here, million years of mountain building there. Geology is the study of pressure and time. That's all it takes really, pressure, and time. That, and a big god-damned poster. Like I said, in prison a man will do anything to keep his mind occupied. It turns out Andy's favorite hobby was totin' his wall through the exercise yard, a handful at a time. I guess after Tommy was killed, he decided he had been here just about long enough. Andy did like he was told, buffed those shoes to a high mirror shine. The guard simply didn't notice. Neither did I... I mean, seriously, how often do you really look at a mans shoes? Andy crawled to freedom through five hundred yards of shit smelling foulness I can't even imagine, or maybe I just don't want too. Five hundred yards... that's the length of five football fields, just shy of half a mile.


• Andy Dufresne: Red. If you ever get out of here, do me a favor. Red: Sure, Andy. Anything. Andy Dufresne: There's a big hayfield up near Buxton. You know where Buxton is? Red: Well, there's... there's a lot of hayfields up there. Andy Dufresne: One in particular. It's got a long rock wall with a big oak tree at the north end. It's like something out of a Robert Frost poem. It's where I asked my wife to marry me. We went there for a picnic and made love under that oak and I asked and she said yes. Promise me, Red. If you ever get out... find that spot. At the base of that wall, you'll find a rock that has no earthly business in a Maine hayfield. Piece of black, volcanic glass. There's something buried under it I want you to have. Red: What, Andy? What's buried under there? Andy Dufresne: [turns to walk away] You'll have to pry it up... to see.

~ickarus maximus