Quotes

Like all celebrities, Robert Redford has been in a lot of interviews over the years. On this page you can find some of his most famous quotes. Put together, they should give you an insight into the person behind the actor …

“A lot of what acting is, is paying attention.“
“All everyone talked about was aging. It took me by surprise because I have not thought of myself that way. I assumed I would age naturally, as time went on. [on his appearance in Havana (1990/I)] “
“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.”
“As a director, I wouldn`t like me as an actor. As an actor, I wouldn`t like me as a director.”
“As an actor and as a person you come together with being in familiar territory although that has not been my whole life. That’s been a part of it. I think a lot of people associate me with the west because of Sundance.”
“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.”
“Basically, there needs to be more theaters. That’s the chief problem for independent film right now, and it keeps getting camouflaged by all the fashionable attention. It actually makes me nervous because, like fashion, it will exhaust itself, and independent film will become yesterday’s news.”
“Because it’s nonprofit, we’re not obligated to put the criteria of commerciality on it. That was one of the reasons for starting it.”
“Because, you know, you’re in Utah. And because of its political conservatism, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.”
“But now there’s something rolling around that we’re talking about it, and the real question is whether he can remember his lines or not.[the 68-year-old Redford said in a dig at the 80-year-old Newman ].”
“Curiously, directing my own films has made me more tolerant and patient. I’ve always been an extremely impatient actor – you know, not too many takes, don’t want to spend too much time on the set. Waiting around drove me nuts. But now I’m much more sympathetic to a director’s struggle.”
“Do you think the earth was created by an accountant? No! The earth was created by the combustion of a creative explosion. Fire and chaos are what started everything. Then order came on top of that. [Robert Redford, Sundance Institute (2003)]“
“Filmgoers are starved for new ideas, voices and visions.”
“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.”
“Golf has become so manicured, so perfect. The greens, the fairways. I don’t like golf carts. I like walking. Some clubs won’t let you in unless you have a caddy and a cart.”
“He has the attention span of a bolt of lightning. Robert Redford (on Paul Newman)”
“Health food may be good for the conscience but Oreos taste a hell of a lot better.”
“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.”
“I am a cynical optimist. Big opening weekends are like cotton candy. The films you will remember over time are the films that stick in the consciousness of the audience in a good way.”
“I am perhaps the best looking grandfather around, apart from Marlon Brando of course!”
“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.”
“I can’t do a thing about it, but I tell you it does not feel good “
“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.”
“I did not, like my children and people today, grow up with television as part of my life.”
“I didn’t think about that because I didn’t have to. We were in Canada in a very remote place and we were working there as actors. She was just Jennifer. [Redford unaffected by J. Lo´s media craze.United Press International]“
“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.”
“I got a review when I was starting in live television. This guy Jack O`Brian called me ‘hammy and overwrought’. Now I`m looking back on it, I`d like to hold on to those reviews. It keeps you in perspective. It really does. Part of you says, ‘You know, I never ever really got over that.’ And what I think you learn very early on is not to believe your own press clippings, one way or another, just do your work. Because you`re your own tough critic. If you focus on doing the work, you`ll get to a place of refinement where those reviews which are often hyped up too much to the negative or the positive fall away.”
“I had just arrived in New York from California. I was nineteen years old and excited beyond belief. I was an art student and an acting student and behaved as most young actors did – meaning that there was no such thing as a good actor, ’cause you yourself hadn’t shown up yet.”
“I had to do some business with corporate America, – my least favorite thing.”
“I have absolutely no plans to extend this festival. I’d rather close it, quite frankly, and let someone else start a festival.”
“I have lost a real friend. My life-and this country-is better for his being in it. [on the death of longtime friend Paul Newman]“
“I have to be human, of course, to be flattered by attention from the public. How could you not be? But it gets pretty intense when people are going after your clothes, and mobbing you in the streets, and you have to hide. That`s kind of amusing, and kind of mind-boggling when it happens – you kind of go with it and have fun with it. Then it gets tiring, and then it gets worse when you realize you`re being robbed of a vital part of your life, which is your privacy. And you also know what`s coming your way is artificial, because those people are reacting to something they saw on the screen, not you as a person.”
“I learned early that you`d better know what you`re talking about. You`d better realize that certain issues are going to be so hot – no matter what reason, what logic you apply to it – you`re going to be met with an opposition just because their viewpoint is different, and there`s no way they`re going to accept your reasoning. Furthermore, they`re going to attack you because you will be portrayed as not being credible: ‘You`re an actor. What do you know?’.”
“I look at going to Hollywood as going behind enemy lines. You parachute in, set up the explosion, then fly out before it goes off.”
“I never did look like a 21-year-old just out of college who`d never been laid. [on refusing the role of Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate (1967), the role that made Dustin Hoffman a star seven years before Redford obtained super-star status himself]“
“I often feel I`ll just opt out of this rat race and buy another hunk of Utah.”
“I think Paul and I are probably alike in that we’re reluctant to talk about something that is not real yet, but we are talking about it.”
“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?”
“I think, as a matter of fact, it might back up on him. It might make him appear to be narrow and afraid of something. I don’t think it will really work. I don’t think it will hurt the film. I hope it doesn’t. [Deseret News 2006]“
“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. (quoted by Robert Osbourne, Academy Awards 1974 Oscar Annual)”
“I vowed (never to work with a bear again) after that scene because there was a scene where things went wrong, I had to be chased by a bear and get up into a tree. The camera wasn’t ready, and they told me to keep running around in circles while they got the camera fixed.[referring to the making of 1972´s ‘Jerimiah Johnson, when discussing a scene in Unfinished Life] “
“I would go into life for a year. Go on the bum, so to speak.[advicing Dartmouth College students to take a break and work between college and production "
"I`ve bought hundreds of acres around my home. That`s why I moved here from the coast. There`s plenty of room to roam and be alone with nature. That`s living. The city life is merely existing."
"Ideas aren't real estate, they grow collectively and that knocks out the egotistical loneliness that generally infects art."
"If you stay in Beverly Hills too long you become a Mercedes."
"I'm not a facelift person. I am what I am. It is OK for some people. [The] trade-off is that something of your soul in your face goes away. You end up looking body-snatched in the last analysis. That’s just my view. It’s not necessarily a popular view.[on why he is going to keep any wrinkles that appear on his face]“
“I’m not afraid of the dark. I’m not afraid of the unknown. I’m attracted to the unknown. I don’t want to be a prisoner of what is known, so I like not knowing certain things. I like mystery.”
“I’m not interested in a film about golf but I am interested in golf as a metaphor.”
“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.”
“In the early years, I was standing out on the corner trying to get people to come into the theater.”
“In the space of one year, you’ve seen, as Dickens said, the best of times and the worst of times. A year ago, with the way the election was decided and the Supreme Court acted, we had what I believe was a travesty of the political system. You began to feel the ground beneath your feet shaking regarding elements in the American system that were put there 200 years ago.”
“Independent film,has the courage to ask things.”
“It certainly presents a hazard. 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. [on corporate-owned distributors/producers investing in independent films]“
“It is particularly poignant to receive the National Medal of Arts at a time when public funding for the arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts in particular, are being whittled away at every turn. Art, in all its forms, feeds and nurtures the soul of a society; provokes thought and debate; causes critical thinking; and fosters understanding of things foreign to our own immediate world. In the end, arts plays a primary role in encouraging healthy tolerance of the diversity in any culture. And, in my opinion, that is something profoundly worthy of protecting. A culture or society that does not recognize arts as integral to its growth and well-being will not survive.”
“It seems everyone in Hollywood is getting pinched, lifted and pulled. I’m looking weird because I’m not.”
“It was never going to be The Paul and Bob Show. Instead, the idea of me presenting a friend who was also a colleague to speak about what inspired him — his salad-dressing company, his racing interests, his camp for children — those were areas that I thought were worthy of attention. [in A Pair of Sundance 'Icons'']“
“It was really a thriller. There was danger out there. The film was using the typewriter and the telephone and pencil on paper as weapons. [Redford remembers ‘All the President's Men’]“
“It’s all about greed and money and it’s the driving force in Hollywood.”
“It’s an honor putting art above politics. Politics can be seductive in terms of things reductive to the soul.”
“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.”
“I’ve bought hundreds of acres around my home. That’s why I moved here from the coast. There’s plenty of room to roam and be alone with nature. That’s living. The city life is merely existing.”
“Julie, it’s wonderful to see you. This is Lena.[when introducing his granddaughter to Julie Harris, his fellow honoree - on the eve of the Kennedy Center Honors 2005]“
“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.”
“Magical, isn’t it? Utterly magical.”
“Neither one. It’s hard for me to answer questions about ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.’ And also, it’s such a commercial phrasing. I don’t know that we’ve seen ourselves in that perspective. You might say ‘Treasure of the Sierra Madre.[when asked if Sundance had evolved into a festival with a ‘Butch Cassidy’ or a ‘Sundance Kid’ personality]“
“Never revisit the past, that’s dangerous. You know, move on.[CBS Interview 2006]“
“Oh, thank heavens, … I wondered when that day would come. It should have happened 35 years ago. [when told that his biggest costar fellow screen legend Paul Newman, says he is getting to the point where he's not really going to make movies anymore.]“
“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. [on the Sundance Film Festival]“
“One of the joys of the movie was working with Dustin; he has one of the most wonderful acting minds I`ve ever worked with. [on working with Dustin Hoffman on ‘All the President`s Men’]“
“One year black filmmakers emerged, then there was a rash of young filmmakers in their twenties. Last year women filmmakers were particularly strong. What I’ve always liked about the festival is that it’s eclectic in nature: No two years are identical. [on the Sundance Film Festival]“
“Paul is the most generous man with whom I`ve ever worked. We had a fantastic rapport shooting ‘Butch Cassidy.’ It was one of the happiest experiences of my life. [1972 comment on Paul Newman]“
“People have been so busy relating to how I look, it’s a miracle I didn’t become a self-conscious blob of protoplasm.”
“Plus, I had never played that guy before, but I knew him intimately. You live in the West long enough, you meet those guys everywhere. Times have changed, and they don’t like it a bit. Some go with the flow, some don’t, and this guy doesn’t.[on the character ‘Einar’ in Unfinished Life]“
“Radio, newspapers, they were normal parts of my life. In those days, you had to go somewhere to watch television and leave something to see it”
“San Francisco holds a special place in my heart and is one of the nation’s great centers of independent film, I am particularly excited to have found such a perfect home for Sundance in this city.”
“Some people have analysis. I have Utah.”
“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.”
“Sundance is about storytelling. Storytellers can broaden our minds: engage, provoke, inspire, and ultimately, connect us.”
“Sundance was started as a mechanism for the discovery of new voices and new talent.”
“Talk is not enough. It has to go to action and that is where we are right now.”
“That’s too bad, I was working so hard.[on Unfinished Life]“

“The business has changed, … The business is what it is; it’s a business. Therefore, it’s hard to do the films like ‘An Unfinished Life’ that are more humanistic. I’ve always been selective, and usually like to do my own things. But as that narrows down, it becomes more and more difficult. But I love it. My love is performing and directing.”
“The film is very, very different from the normal kind of films that are coming out right now.”
“The idea was to set Quiz Show at this time of naive energy, when television’s audience tended to believe what it saw as what really was.”
“The stuff that came to us wasn’t any good, … (They said) can you do a sequel to ‘The Sting?’ No, leave that one alone … don’t try to milk it.”
“The technology available for film-making now is incredible, but I am a big believer that it’s all in the story.”
“There are certain friendships that are sometimes too good and too strong to talk about. [on his friendship with Paul Newman].”
“There is nothing I can do about this stuff and I am pretty well ok with the fact that I think Sundance is not going to be stopped by it, because he Festival is itself now, and doesn’t need me out there to talk about it like I did years ago.”
“There is nothing I can do about this stuff and I am pretty well ok with the fact that I think Sundance is not going to be stopped by it, because he Festival is itself now, and doesn’t need me out there to talk about it like I did years ago.”
“There’s going to be a lot of films in there that people are just not going to like at all. That’s part of the deal. I don’t think it’s changed. What has changed is now, instead of 350 people there, as it was the first year, there’s 40,000, 45,000.”
“They throw that word ‘star’ at you loosely, and they take it away equally loosely. You take the responsibility for their crappy movie, that`s what that means.”
“This is a movie that might change a lot of perceptions about Jennifer, too, and the little girl who plays her daughter (Becca Gardner) is really terrific.”
“This is different in the sense that it allows an audience to reflect as it moves. It does have the kind of flow of a river flowing.”
“This was made before ‘Million Dollar Baby’… but this was put on the shelf for so long.”
“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.”
“We are pleased to bring to New York the spirit of Sundance. Our collaboration with BAM is the keystone of our 25th Anniversary celebration plans during the year.”
“We could create something that was criticized in the beginning as bound to fail because it wasn’t commercial. And it has worked, and I’m happy with it.”
“We do not own this place, we are just passengers.”
“We don’t program (the festival) for commerciality. We program for diversity.”
“We program the festival, after 20 years, exactly the way we did on the first day.”
“We put all our concerns on hold to let the leaders lead. I think we`re owed a big, massive apology. [during his opening-night address at the Sundance Film Festival, claiming U.S.politicians exploited public support of invasions]“
“We were at 10,000 feet in Utah and I was running out of gas. I was in boots that were leather-soled. The bear was closing in. Now, he’s supposed to be playing. Once I started to run, he got really excited. Pretty soon he was chasing me. And I said if this guy gets me, his idea of play is going to be the end of me. So I threw the rifle out and got on that tree so fast. Now, once it was done, I mean, I was sweating bullets. I said, not again. Not again.[ While making 1972's 'Jeremiah Johnson', he had to wrestle a bear].”
“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.”
“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.”
“Well I like to work, it’s just being as selective as you are at the time, when there’s maybe less product out there that’s available.”
“Well I would love to do a movie with Paul, but he can’t remember lines. And that concerns me. You know, I’d hate to have to carry him in a movie, you know? It’d be tough.”
“Well, I mean, I guess I support any individual’s ability to speak on their own behalf.”
“What about a sequel to ‘Butch Cassidy?’ Well the guys died in it, what is it going to be, a spiritual film? Well how about a prequel? That’s pretty desperate.”
“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.”
“When we made the movies nobody used the word ‘chemistry’. Nobody used the word ‘bonding’.It was just:‘Get up there and do your job? [on his relationship with Paul Newman] “
“Where else would I bury my family?”
“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.”
“Who would’ve thought? … I didn’t know anything about that film, and I don’t think Morgan did, either, at the time. So that its coming afterwards – our film – I guess is just one of those circumstances that is beyond your control.”
“Why do they have to mess with things that were perfect the first time around?”
“Yeah, I think so. Don’t tell anybody, will you? … Forty years of a big secret.”
“You can’t completely control the sport – Tiger Woods comes close. The test is against yourself and nature’s own way. I find golf a particularly good metaphor for this story.”
“You have to go someplace and get in touch with it. You can’t put those kinds of words on the screen without some kind of reference. It would be impossible. It wouldn’t make any sense. I know that territory, by association, not necessarily personal experience, but by association.”
“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.”