Robert Redford Quotes & Sayings

Success is a tricky mistress. It's nice to have but it's a tricky thing to embrace. — Robert Redford

I can't think of anything outside of having the gift yourself and creating yourself. I can't think of the next better thing to do than being able to put it back. Creative expression, I think, is vital to the success of any society ... A society without art will die. — Robert Redford

Have a strong vision about the story you want to tell and how you want to tell it. — Robert Redford

I believe the American people care a lot about the environment. — Robert Redford

I've always felt that almost every part I've played has been a character part. I mean, I look at it that way. I can't help how I look or how I seem to people. — Robert Redford

Sport is a wonderful metaphor for life. Of all the sports that I played - skiing, baseball, fishing - there is no greater example than golf, because you're playing against yourself and nature. — Robert Redford

Storytellers broaden our minds: engage, provoke, inspire, and ultimately, connect us. — Robert Redford

Not taking a risk is a risk. That's how I see it. — Robert Redford

It's hard to pay attention these days because of multiple affects of the information technology nowadays. You tend to develop a faster, speedier mind, but I don't think it's necessarily broader or smarter. — Robert Redford

So what if my face is falling apart? I don't give a damn. Anyway, it gives me character. Everyone thinks that they can stay pretty forever but some come out of Beverly Hills surgeries looking scary to me. — Robert Redford

Ambiguity is something that I really respond to. I like the complexity of it. — Robert Redford

When did Noah build the boat? - Before the rain. — Robert Redford

When I grew up, shame was used as a tool for check and balance. If you stood a chance of hearing someone say, "Shame on you," or "You should be ashamed of yourself," you thought twice. It doesn't seem to be a factor today. — Robert Redford

You're never going to be the same person you are right now. — Robert Redford

A lot of what acting is is paying attention. — Robert Redford

When I started, I was an artist; I wanted to be an artist. I became an actor almost by accident. I acted for fifteen years and tried to produce. I looked for stories that were the story beneath the story that you thought you knew, like 'The Candidate'. — Robert Redford

I guess some mistakes you never stop paying for. — Robert Redford

Television tells us only the things it wants to. It still feeds us heroes, it still offers villains. And even though we know better than to always trust it, we still watch. — Robert Redford

I remember my dad came from Ireland and Scotland, and so he carried with him the fear of poverty. So when I wanted to break loose, it kind of made him very nervous. — Robert Redford

If you want to slice into America, it's pretty red, white, and blue in terms of how it goes about things, but there's a gray area there, and I've always been interested in where things are complicated. — Robert Redford

Journalism has changed tremendously because of the democratization of information. Anybody can put something up on the Internet. It's harder and harder to find what the truth is. — Robert Redford

I don't see myself as beautiful. I was a kid who was freckle-faced, and they used to call me 'hay head.' — Robert Redford

I'm not a facelift person. I am what I am. — Robert Redford

When people start thinking of you more as a persona, they are less inclined to allow you to move into different areas. Sometimes they're wrong. Sometimes they're just very stereotypical or restricted in their own thinking of what they'll allow you to do. — Robert Redford

Ideas aren't real estate, they grow collectively and that knocks out the egotistical loneliness that generally infects art. — Robert Redford

I was never a good student. I had to be dragged into kindergarten. It was hard to sit and listen to somebody talk. I wanted to be out, educated by experience and adventure, and I didn't know how to express that. — Robert Redford

Health food may be good for the conscience but Oreos taste a hell of a lot better. — Robert Redford

I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend? — Robert Redford

I was blessed to look well and retain a youthful look but that was just genes. I was disappointed when critics started pointing out my wrinkles. I thought, you mean this is what it's gonna be about now? I'm not going to be permitted to be human? — Robert Redford

It seems everyone in Hollywood is getting pinched, lifted and pulled. I'm looking weird because I'm not. — Robert Redford

Usually I like to improvise. Sometimes, depending on the nature of the piece, I like to improvise because I think it brings certain freshness and a reality to it, as long as it doesn't go too far out of the box. — Robert Redford

He's meant to be that classic Homer, Ulysses, Hercules - a character who goes out or has some gift of some kind. He goes on a journey of discovery and part of that is falling into darkness - the temptations of life. — Robert Redford

Sundance was started as a mechanism for the discovery of new voices and new talent. — Robert Redford

I have the freedom to take chances, to say no. I have the freedom to be who I really want to be, rather than have to conform to this or that just to stay alive. — Robert Redford

Once the festival achieved a certain level of notoriety, then people began to come here with agendas that were not the same as ours. We can't do anything about that. We can't control that. — Robert Redford

What I would do is when I was younger I would draw in a sketch book something that happened in my life and then write a little something on the side about what happened or what the story. — Robert Redford

What we are living with is the result of human choices and it can be changed by making better, wiser choices. — Robert Redford

Well there's these things called books.... They are like TV for smart people. — Robert Redford

Whereas money is a means to an end for a filmmaker, to the corporate mind money is the end. Right now, I think independent film is very confused, because there's excess pressure in the marketplace for entertainment to pay off. — Robert Redford

I don't know what your childhood was like, but we didn't have much money. We'd go to a movie on a Saturday night, then on Wednesday night my parents would walk us over to the library. It was such a big deal, to go in and get my own book. — Robert Redford

I believe in mythology. I guess I share Joseph Campbell's notion that a culture or society without mythology would die, and we're close to that. — Robert Redford

We program the festival, after 20 years, exactly the way we did on the first day. — Robert Redford

The focus of entertainment is taking away from what the public needs as news. I think investigative journalism will always be important and always find its way, be it on the Internet or wherever. — Robert Redford

The big moment for me was making 'All the President's Men'. It was not about Watergate or President Nixon. I wanted to focus on something I thought not many people knew about: How do journalists get the story? — Robert Redford

Whenever there's chaos, there's ambiguity, and where there's ambiguity, there's fear. And fear gets manipulated. — Robert Redford

I have no regrets, because I've done everything I could to the best of my ability. — Robert Redford

I was seen in earlier years by family members and people of authority as somebody wasting his time. I had trouble with the restrictions of conformity. It made me edgy. — Robert Redford

As an artist I just can't think of a better life than the one I've been blessed with. It's just a great ride. — Robert Redford

When I go for a project, I wonder what underpinning a project will have that's going to give the audience some emotional access to it. — Robert Redford

It's all about greed and money and it's the driving force in Hollywood. — Robert Redford

[Making Ordinary People] was a wonderful experience. Tremendous. I haven't seen it since. It belongs to the public now; it no longer really belongs to me. — Robert Redford

I've always liked speed. I own a car that I shouldn't be talking about because I'm an environmentalist, but the 1955 Porsche Spyder 550 RS is the finest sports car ever made. — Robert Redford

Well first of all it's a business and it's a tough business, and you have to have the strength to survive all the set backs all the failures that make this a mean business, that's getting meaner and meaner every year in my opinion. — Robert Redford

I'm not a lawyer, but I do know this: we need to protect our ability to tell controversial stories. — Robert Redford

We've poisoned the air, the water, and the land. In our passion to control nature, things have gone out of control. Progress from now on has to mean something different. We're running out of resources and we are running out of time. — Robert Redford

I'm fascinated by journalism. I put a keen eye, not a negative eye, on its role, particularly how it is changed by the times we're living in. — Robert Redford

'Butch Cassidy' was the only film I ever enjoyed making. — Robert Redford

Times change; Hollywood is not the same as it was when I first entered the business. It felt to me like it was starting to narrow down and centralize itself around what would ... make money. — Robert Redford

I think documentary filmmakers need as much protection as possible under journalist's privilege. How else is the public to know what is going on? — Robert Redford

Celebrity is a big part of the American social system. I'm certainly grateful for what it's done for me, but I do think that celebrity is overdone in our society. I think it's got a dangerous side to it. — Robert Redford

Part of me is drawn to the nature of sadness because I think life is sad, and sadness is not something that should be avoided or denied. It's a fact of life, like contradictions are. — Robert Redford

All my life I've been dogged by guilt because I feel there is this difference between the way I look and the way I feel inside. — Robert Redford

When I was a kid, nobody told me I was good-looking. I wish they had. I would've had a better time. — Robert Redford

The way I deal with arthritis is to keep moving. As long as I can play hard tennis, as long as I can ski or ride a horse - all kinds of things can come your way. As long as you can, do it. People who retire die. My dad retired and died shortly after. Just keep moving. — Robert Redford

I love making films more than anything, but it's tough. — Robert Redford

The tough thing about adulthood is it starts before you even know it starts. — Robert Redford

I'm not much interested in sport just as sport. I wouldn't be interested in making a golf film or baseball or fishing film. — Robert Redford

Between 18 and 19 years old [in the 1950s] I came to Paris. I studied art. And that experience really did change my life. I was living hand to mouth. I walked everywhere. I thought, this city is incredible but you really have to experience it by walking it. — Robert Redford

Sometimes the failures can be exciting and fun. It's just a step on the road, it's not the end of something. — Robert Redford

Lastly get emotionally connected to your story so you can deliver it, you know, if you can't deliver the emotions to your script there's no point to your story. Story is the key. — Robert Redford

The art of making a film and its content are far more interesting to me than the result or impact. — Robert Redford

Curiously, directing my own films have made me more tolerant and patient. I've always been an extremely impatient actor. Waiting around drove me nuts. But now I'm much more sympathetic to a director's struggle. — Robert Redford

Let's get something straight - I don't see myself as beautiful. — Robert Redford

Water is the sleeping giant issue of the 21st century and we all need to wake up about it. — Robert Redford

What is it with you people? You think not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth? — Robert Redford

You should prepare when you go to a public event to be public. That's when I will sign autographs. But not when you're going about your normal business. — Robert Redford

It's good to say, 'Look, I can't always be right, but my gut tells me this' - and then you confirm with your gut. — Robert Redford

From my experience in my country, America over and over again takes itself right to the brink, it puts one foot over but it never goes over. It wakes up at the last minute and says woah, and then pulls back. — Robert Redford

Utah is changing. There are good people in Utah. More people want to change the discriminatory laws than want to keep them. People should be able to marry whomever they love. — Robert Redford

I think independent filmmakers, documentary filmmakers - they are journalists. — Robert Redford

As a director, I wouldn't like me as an actor. As an actor, I wouldn't like me as a director. — Robert Redford

God, I just love baseball. — Robert Redford

When things become insurmountable, some people quit, some keep going
for no other reason than to continue. Because that's all there is to do. — Robert Redford

Any time I saw people treated unfairly because of race, creed, whatever - it struck a nerve. — Robert Redford

When you get older, you learn certain life lessons. You apply that wisdom, and suddenly you say, 'Hey, I've got a new lease on this thing. So let's go.' — Robert Redford

I'm not interested in a film about golf but I am interested in golf as a metaphor. — Robert Redford

There's a lot of money to be made by strip-mining and drilling the dirtiest oil on the planet. But why should the rest of us pay the price? — Robert Redford

He has the attention span of a lightning bolt. — Robert Redford

The measure of our success will be the condition on which we leave the world for the next generation. — Robert Redford

Because, you know, you're in Utah. And because of its political conservatism, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. — Robert Redford

In fact you've got your hands tied behind your back when somebody chooses to take a low road in to you, there is nothing you can do about it, and so you just live with it and move on. — Robert Redford

I used to feel competitive about a career, but now the only things I'm really passionate about are my family, the environment and Indians. — Robert Redford

Filmgoers are starved for new ideas, voices and visions. — Robert Redford

People have been so busy relating to how I look, it's a miracle I didn't become a self-conscious blob of protoplasm. — Robert Redford

Films don't always tell a story; some films can achieve effect just by being razzle-dazzle or rock n' roll. That's part of the fare that's out there. And that's okay. For me, I place more value on a story. — Robert Redford

Generally speaking, I went through that. I came to a place where I realised what true value was. It wasn't money. Money is a means to achieving an end, but it's not the end. — Robert Redford

It felt to me like America was always wanting to resolve things too quickly, without thinking through what the costs and consequences would be and how that affects an individual living in that world. Then as I grew up and went about my life, I think I just got more and more interested in that gray area where things are not so easily quantified. — Robert Redford

I was producing things I was acting in, but I had never directed and I felt it was time. I was looking for a piece of material that was about behavior and feelings. When I read Judith Guest's book, I thought, This is it. — Robert Redford

I guess the optimistic thing is that those people in Congress who are climate deniers, I think their time has run out. — Robert Redford

I have a very low regard for cynics. I think it's the beginning of dying. — Robert Redford