The Green Mile Quotes

“Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not.”

“Appeals weren’t for the likes of John Coffey, not back then.”

“I couldn’t help it. I tried to take it back, but it was too late.”

“What they were seeing was black.”

“The wide corridor up the center of E Block was floored with linoleum the color of tired old limes, and so what was called the Last Mile at other prisons was called the Green Mile at Cold Mountain.”

“Atonement was powerful; it was the lock on the door you closed against the past. ”

“I just can’t see God putting a gift like that in the hands of a man who would kill a child.”

“This is the first time I ever felt really actually in danger of hell.”

“It’s strange how pain marks our faces, and makes us look like family.”

“Working with him was sort of like trying to defuse a bomb with somebody standing behind you and every now and then clashing a pair of cymbals together. In a word, upsetting.”

“Sometimes, oh God, the Green Mile is so long.”

“Do you mean to kill him, you cowards? Do you mean to kill the man who saved Melinda Moores’s life, who tried to save those little girls’ lives? Well, at least there will be one less black man in the world, won’t there? You can console yourselves with that. One less n*gger.”

“I think that’s what people most always do with the stuff they can’t make out - just forget it.”

“I’m rightly tired of the pain I hear and feel, boss. I’m tired of bein on the road, lonely as a robin in the rain. Not never havin no buddy to go on with or tell me where we’s comin from or goin to or why. I’m tired of people bein ugly to each other. It feels like pieces of glass in my head. I’m tired of all the times I’ve wanted to help and couldn’t. I’m tired of bein in the dark. Mostly it’s the pain. There’s too much. If I could end it, I would. But I can’t.”

“Percy wanted not just to kill the mouse but to squash it.”

“He kill them with they love.”

“Please boss, don’t put that thing over my face, don’t put me in the dark. I’s afraid of the dark.”

“To tell you the truth, boss, I don’t know much of anything.”

“I’m sorry for what I am.”

“On the day of my judgment, when I stand before God, and He asks me why did I kill one of his true miracles, what am I gonna say? That it was my job? My job?”