Miscellaneous Posts Or Pages That Describe Prison Life.
Quotes From Shawshank
Red: [narrating] The first night’s the toughest, no doubt about it. They march you in naked as the day you were born, skin burning and half blind from that delousing shit they throw on you, and when they put you in that cell… and those bars slam home… that’s when you know it’s for real. A whole life blown away in the blink of an eye. Nothing left but all the time in the world to think about it.
Warden Samuel Norton: I believe in two things: discipline and the Bible. Here you’ll receive both. Put your trust in the Lord; your ass belongs to me. Welcome to Shawshank.
Heywood: Red? You saying Andy’s innocent? I mean *for real* innocent?
Red: Yeah, it looks that way.
Heywood: Sweet Jesus. How long’s he been in here?
Red: Since ’47, what is that… 19 years.
[Andy after Warden Norton refuse to appeal his case]
Andy Dufresne: It’s my life. Don’t you understand? IT’S MY LIFE!
Red: [narrating] 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 best left unsaid. I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can’t be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.
Andy Dufresne: That’s the beauty of music. They can’t get that from you… Haven’t you ever felt that way about music?
Red: I played a mean harmonica as a younger man. Lost interest in it though. Didn’t make much sense in here.
Andy Dufresne: Here’s where it makes the most sense. You need it so you don’t forget.
Red: Forget?
Andy Dufresne: Forget that… there are places in this world that aren’t made out of stone. That there’s something inside… that they can’t get to, that they can’t touch. That’s yours.
Red: What’re you talking about?
Andy Dufresne: Hope.
Red: Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.
Red: These walls are funny. First you hate ‘em, then you get used to ‘em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That’s institutionalized.
Heywood: Shit. I could never get like that.
Prisoner: Oh yeah? Say that when you been here as long as Brooks has.
Red: Right. They send you here for life, and that’s exactly what they take. The part that counts, anyway.
Andy Dufresne: Get busy living, or get busy dying.
A Comment on “Warden Samuel Norton’s statement” about believing in two things, discipline and the bible… This reminds me of the time my husband applied of Executive Clemency. He was denied for several reasons. 1. He had no extraordinary accomplishments such as a PhD. 2. He had no spiritual life. 3. He wasn’t in a secure relationship (according to MT BOPP.) which I do have evidence of these statements! I want to address number 2. There is a separation of church and state and he has a RIGHT to believe in any religion he chooses or none at all. This is his RIGHT as an American!! How dare our prison systems use a lack of religion for a reason to deny him his freedom. This is unconstitutional on every level so how is it that MT BOPP gets away with this? So if he started going to church this will make him a better person? But if he doesn’t he can sit and rot forever? I want this issue addressed.