110+ Robert Redford Quotes On Charismatic, Iconic And Influential

Robert Redford was an American actor, director, producer, and entrepreneur. He was best known for his roles in films such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, and All the President's Men. He also founded the Sundance Film Festival, a platform for independent filmmakers to showcase their works. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Robert Redford on life, charismatic, iconic.

Top 10 Robert Redford Quotes

1. 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?
2. Health food may be good for the conscience but Oreos taste a hell of a lot better.
3. The measure of our success will be the condition on which we leave the world for the next generation.
4. God, I just love baseball.
5. Problems can become opportunities when the right people come together.
6. 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.
7. Never revisit the past, that's dangerous. You know, move on.
8. The technology available for film-making now is incredible, but I am a big believer that it's all in the story.
9. He has the attention span of a lightning bolt.
10. I have no regrets, because I've done everything I could to the best of my ability.

Robert Redford Short Quotes

• The tough thing about adulthood is it starts before you even know it starts.
• Be careful of success; it has a dark side.
• Storytelling is important. Part of human continuity.
• Sundance was started as a mechanism for the discovery of new voices and new talent.
• I don't think about when it's going to stop and what you do before it stops. You just keep moving.
• If you stay in Beverly Hills too long, you become a Mercedes.
• I'm always moving forward and trying new things.
• A lot of what acting is paying attention.
• I love making films more than anything, but it's tough.
• I think independent filmmakers, documentary filmmakers - they are journalists.

Robert Redford Quotes About 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. — 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

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

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

I did not, like my children and people today, grow up with television as part of my life. — Robert Redford

I think you just keep going. I've been that way, my whole life. — 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

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

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. — Robert Redford

Robert Redford Quotes About Golf

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. — Robert Redford

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. — 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

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

Robert Redford Quotes About Nature

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

When I was about fifteen, I went to work at Yosemite National Park. It changed me forever. Nature had carved its own sculpture, and I was part of it, not the other way around. — Robert Redford

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

Robert Redford Quotes About People

I'm interested in that thing that happens where there's a breaking point for some people and not for others. You go through such hardship, things that are almost impossibly difficult, and there's no sign that it's going to get any better, and that's the point when people quit. But some don't. — 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

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

It's a creative enterprise, just like art, just like painting, music. Creating something can be done in different categories, so to do it in film is just another expression, which is great. Because it translates so well because so many people see the work, if you're lucky. — 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

People are becoming more and more aware of how the dominance of development and business is altering their lives and, in particular, their own heritage. — 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 is it with you people? You think not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth? — Robert Redford

People are finally able to look around and say, 'I can see the drought, I can see the rising sea levels, I can see the crops dying. Okay, now I get it.' It is finally beginning to sink in that there has been a lot of damage. — Robert Redford

Robert Redford Famous Quotes And Sayings

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

All of the films that I've made are about the country I live in and grew up in... And I think if you're going to put an artist's eye to it, you're going to put a critical eye to it. I've always been interested in the gray area that exists between the black and white, or the red and blue, and that's where complexity lies. — Robert Redford

It's an honor putting art above politics. Politics can be seductive in terms of things reductive to the soul. — Robert Redford

San Franciscans are very proud of their city, and they should be. It’s the most beautiful place in the world. — 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

Now is not the time to repudiate environmental balance, but rather it is the time for all of us to work together - politician, advocate, rancher, scientist, and citizen. Only by doing this will the United States move forward and be a leader in environmental issues and ensure sustainability to our delicate ecosystem. — 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

I would see my hometown, Los Angeles, change. Green space and orange groves gave way to cement, freeways flooded with traffic, and air pollution, all in the name of "progress." I felt like I was losing my home. It had a profound effect on me, and I realized just how important nature was to my spirit, my soul, my point of view. — Robert Redford

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

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

When I became successful, I put up a caution. I didn't think it was fair to have the shadow of that kind of success thrown on my family. And I was cautious about being taken by things that could destroy you. — 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

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

For me, personally, skiing holds everything. I used to race cars, but skiing is a step beyond that. It removes the machinery and puts you one step closer to the elements. And it's a complete physical expression of freedom. — 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

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

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

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

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. — Robert Redford

The way you really find out about the performer's seriousness about the cause is how long they stay with it when the spotlight gets turned off. You see a lot of celebrities switch gears. They go from the environment to animal rights to obesity or whatever. That I don't have a lot of respect for. — 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

Essentially, my kids grew up with the emphasis on the environment because I became a political activist in about 1969 and it was not an easy time. Those were the days when the oil and gas companies pretty much controlled the show and anybody speaking about solar energy or carbon energy would get smashed down as being a radical or a tree-hugger or what have you. So I was out there feeling very often alone and my kids would get that. — Robert Redford

I have faith in the pendulum swinging. Right now it's so far against the wall that it can't go any farther; it's gonna start to swing back. That's my optimism. One of the cures is gonna be getting the American people to fully wake up. All the American people, particularly young people, because they're gonna inherit this earth; they're gonna inherit what we're doing. — Robert Redford

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

I can't watch completed films - my wife makes fun of me. — 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

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

I didn’t want the attacks to affect me. I don’t believe you should be led by fear. — Robert Redford

If you could ever do a project that really has magic in it, and justifiable magic, you should do it. — Robert Redford

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

That's another thing that's depressing: certain attitudes in Congress. They assume that you're dumb; they can take advantage of you being dumb. I find that offensive. It insults our intelligence. They're playing us for dumb and they're being dumb in doing it. But I believe that's gonna change. I think those people, the McConnells, are not helping us at all. They're taking us backward in time. — Robert Redford

Once you leave Sundance suddenly you run into bulldozers and concrete and cranes, and all that heritage that the Mormon culture used to be so proud of is turned into out of control develpoment. — 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

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

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

I enjoyed working with Dustin Hoffman. That was really fun. He decided that to really be effective as Woodward and Bernstein, considering their differences, we should spend some time together. Because Dustin and I were very different. — Robert Redford

Sundance started with two acres back in 1963 that I bought from a sheepherder for $500. What has happened, I could see development starting to descend on the state of Utah. I thought I had better acquire more land to protect it. I thought that would probably be my legacy, to protect land. — Robert Redford

In fact, I think more broadly about what an audience requires, but I want an audience to be fascinated by the process of finding an answer, or finding out there isn't one. — Robert Redford

Politics right now is in a very dark place, and I think the only place for me is to do what I do - make films, create art, watch it as it evolves. Right now it's like Humpty Dumpty sitting on a wall, and a great fall is happening. The behavior seems to be really dumb. — Robert Redford

I think "quiet" sometime is a greater power than noise. It can harbor and reveal feelings that can't be expressed. — Robert Redford

The entertainment person gets a certain credibility, and the politician gets a certain notoriety. I'm against it. — Robert Redford

I don't remember spending any time with anybody on set. I don't spend a lot of time with people. — 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

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

...if our humanity - our soul as a society - is overtaken by the materiel and cosmetic, there will be no hope of peace. — Robert Redford

Criticism challenges current findings. The effort to defend one's position can lead to deeper insights or consideration of options previously not considered. — Robert Redford

I never had to worry about divestment because I never invested. — Robert Redford

If you can do more, you should. — 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

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

When I was a kid I was not a good student. I went to the University of Colarado, my grades were poor. I was asked to leave after a year. What I really wanted to do was to be an artist. — Robert Redford

I don't think you can ever return, really. — Robert Redford

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

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

You work like hell to get yourself ahead in the business. You could go anywhere before, and suddenly you can't go anywhere. It's like being a cartoon character. — Robert Redford

Right now I am working on something that's pretty important to me. It has to do with my own history in politics. I'd done All the President's Men, and the history of how that came about is a story unto itself. It began with The Candidate. No one knows about that connection. I was on a train, and I was promoting The Candidate going from Jacksonville, Florida, down to Miami to duplicate what candidates in 1972 did. — Robert Redford

Other people have analysis. I have Utah. — 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

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

In 1973, I was shown a graphic of how dependent the United States was on nonrenewable resources like oil and coal and that little was being done to change that. It seemed irrefutable that we needed a change in direction or we'd be paying a huge price down the road. That's when I made a commitment to become a political activist. — 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

I've always wanted to try new things because it's exciting and it keeps you active and alive. — Robert Redford

The country is so wounded, bleeding, and hurt right now. The country needs to be healed-it's not going to be healed from the top, politically. How are we going to heal? Art is the healing force. — 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

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

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

I started as an actor in the theater playing a lot of character parts, and suddenly, I found myself in this place where it felt like I was getting locked into a kind of a stereotype, and it did bother me. — Robert Redford

I'm not good at compromise. — Robert Redford

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

Life Lessons by Robert Redford

1. Robert Redford is an example of never giving up, as he faced many rejections before becoming a successful actor.
2. He also emphasizes the importance of staying true to yourself and your values, as he has always been a strong advocate for environmental conservation and social justice.
3. Lastly, Redford is an example of how hard work and dedication can lead to success, as he has achieved many accolades in his career.