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The Measure Of Our Success Will Be The Condition On Which We Leave The World For The Next Generation.
-Robert Redford
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The Measure Of Our

Robert Redford
...
The Measure Of Our Success Will Be The Condition On Which We Leave The World For The Next Generation.

Understanding the Quote: "the measure of our success will be the condition on which we..."

This quote by Robert Redford reflects deeply on the theme of success. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Success, Generations, World, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Robert Redford interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Robert Redford

Robert Redford is celebrated for insightful thoughts on success and generations. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Success
Generations
World
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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.
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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.
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It Seems Everyone In Hollywood Is Getting Pinched, Lifted And Pulled. I'm Looking Weird Because I'm Not.
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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.
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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.
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I'm Not Good At Compromise.
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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.
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I Didn't Think About Politics Until I Came To Europe.
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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.
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Let's Get Something Straight - I Don't See Myself As Beautiful.
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We Program The Festival, After 20 Years, Exactly The Way We Did On The First Day.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I Don't See Myself As Beautiful. I Was A Kid Who Was Freckle-faced, And They Used To Call Me 'hay Head.'
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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.
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Sundance Was Started As A Mechanism For The Discovery Of New Voices And New Talent.
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San Franciscans Are Very Proud Of Their City, And They Should Be. It’s The Most Beautiful Place In The World.
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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.
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I Didn’t Want The Attacks To Affect Me. I Don’t Believe You Should Be Led By Fear.
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If We Want Energy Security, Then We Have To Reduce Our Appetite For Fossil Fuels. There's No Other Way. Other Issues May Crowd The Headlines, But This Is Our Fundamental Challenge. Big Challenges Require Bold Action And Leadership. To Get The United States Off Fossil Fuels In This Uneasy National Climate Of Terrorism And Conflict In The Persian Gulf, We Must Treat The Issue With The Urgence And Persistance It Deserves. The Measure Of Our Success Will Be The Condition On Which We Leave The World For The Next Generation.
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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.
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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.
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When I Was Young, I Said To Myself, "you've Got To Make The Most Of Your Life." It's All About Taking Risks. Push Yourself To Do As Much Exploration As Possible. Find Yourself. Because Sometimes We Think We've Found Ourselves, But It's Only Part Of Ourselves We've Found. We Haven't Pushed Ourselves Far Out There Where We Make Mistakes And Things Don't Work Out, But At Least We've Discovered Something. I Felt That's What My Life Had To Be.
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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.
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Whenever There's Chaos, There's Ambiguity, And Where There's Ambiguity, There's Fear. And Fear Gets Manipulated.
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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.
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...if Our Humanity - Our Soul As A Society - Is Overtaken By The Materiel And Cosmetic, There Will Be No Hope Of Peace.
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I Think Independent Filmmakers, Documentary Filmmakers - They Are Journalists.
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I Think Hollywood... Well, There Is No Hollywood Anymore So Let's Just Call It The Mainstream Since The Business Is No Longer Hollywood Producing Its Own Films And Then Distributing, They Just Distribute.
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The Technology Available For Film-making Now Is Incredible, But I Am A Big Believer That It's All In The Story.
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As A Director, I Wouldn't Like Me As An Actor. As An Actor, I Wouldn't Like Me As A Director.
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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.
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I Have No Regrets, Because I've Done Everything I Could To The Best Of My Ability.
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Because, You Know, You're In Utah. And Because Of Its Political Conservatism, If You Can Make It There, You Can Make It Anywhere.
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The Important Thing About A Sport Is The People Who Devote Their Lives To It.
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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.
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When Did Noah Build The Boat? - Before The Rain.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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America
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.
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Golf
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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.
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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.
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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.
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If You Can Do More, You Should.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Success Is A Tricky Mistress. It's Nice To Have But It's A Tricky Thing To Embrace.
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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.
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Wonderful
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?
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Made
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Artist
Years
Stories
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.
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Acting
I Was Raised In California During The Second World War And Into The '50s And Everything Was Fine, Everything Was Great. The Sun Always Shone, Everybody Looked Healthy And Wore Ties And Smoked In Restaurants, And There Were Cars For Everybody - Except Us, Because I Came From A Lower Class Neighbourhood. But [in France] I Realised There Was A Different Point Of View, So When I Came Back To America A Year And A Half Later I Was Much More Focused On My Own Country Culturally And Politically.
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Views
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Film
Love Making
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I'm Gonna Die But I Haven't Thought About Retiring.
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Havens
Dies
Not Taking A Risk Is A Risk. That's How I See It.
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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.
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I'd Been Influenced By Reading Books On Art And Colonies That Existed In Paris And Places Like That And So When I Came To Europe I Came To France And I Had Very Little Money, And I Had To Live Low And Stayed In A Bohemian Section Of Paris With A Lot Of Other Students, Who Were From Medical School, Science School And Art School. We All Lived In A Kind Of Communal Way And I Was Challenged Politically, Because I Didn't Have A Clue And They Would Ask Me Questions About The Algerian War, Which Was Very Big In France In The Late '50s.
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Book
I've Been Able To Carve Out Spaces For Myself. At Sundance, I'm In The Mountains - My Property Is Private. I Get On A Horse And Ride For Three, Four Hours. Sometimes Five. I Get Lost. But When I'm In, I'm In.
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Mountain
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Starting
Any Time I Saw People Treated Unfairly Because Of Race, Creed, Whatever - It Struck A Nerve.
Race
People
Nerves
What Is It With You People? You Think Not Getting Caught In A Lie Is The Same Thing As Telling The Truth?
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Lying
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I Don't Think About When It's Going To Stop And What You Do Before It Stops. You Just Keep Moving.
Moving
Thinking
Keep Moving
Storytelling Was A Way To See The World Bigger Than The One You Were Looking At, And That Had Great Appeal For Me. I Think Since That Was Part Of My Upbringing, It Became Part Of Me, And I Wanted To Pass It Along To My Kids And My Grandkids.
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Thinking
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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.
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Hollywood
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Have A Strong Vision About The Story You Want To Tell And How You Want To Tell It.
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Vision
Stories
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.
Character
Cartoon
Hell
The Measure Of Our Success Will Be The Condition On Which We Leave The World For The Next Generation.
Success
Generations
World
If You Could Ever Do A Project That Really Has Magic In It, And Justifiable Magic, You Should Do It.
Magic
Projects
Should
I Have A Lot Of Land. I Bought It Because I Had A Very Strong Feeling. I Was In My Early Twenties, And I Had Grown Up In Los Angeles And Had Seen That City Slide Off Into The Sea From The City I Knew As A Little Kid. It Lost Its Identity - Suddenly There Was Cement Everywhere And The Green Was Gone And The Air Was Bad - And I Wanted Out.
Strong
Kids
Air
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.
Taken
Successful
Thinking
I Try To Avoid Giving Advice. The Only Advice I Will Give Is To Pay Attention. I Don't Mean To The Screen In Your Hand. I'm Talking About The Natural World. I Spent A Lot Of Time Educating My Children About Nature By Putting Them In Nature. I Said, "i Want You To Listen; I Want You To Look." There's So Much Technology Coming Into Our Lives That Takes Us Away From The Natural Stuff, So I'm Pushing The Other Way.
Children
Mean
Technology
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.
Art
Hands
Years
If You Stay In Beverly Hills Too Long, You Become A Mercedes.
Funny
California
Long
Storytelling Is Important. Part Of Human Continuity.
Important
Storytelling
Humans
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?"
Talking
Issues
Hot
You’re Never Going To Be The Same Person You Are Right Now.
Persons
Right Now
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.
Wall
People
Optimism
Never Revisit The Past, That's Dangerous. You Know, Move On.
Moving
Past
Danger
Water Is The Sleeping Giant Issue Of The 21st Century And We All Need To Wake Up About It.
Sleep
Issues
Water
The World Around Us Is In A Sea Change, And I Think The Glory Of Art Is That It Cannot Only Survive Change, It Can Lead It
Art
Thinking
Sea
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.
Blessed
Artist
Thinking
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.
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There's A Lot Of Hyperventilation That Takes Off Before The [sundance Film] Festival, A Lot Of Buzz. Every Year We Hear, This Is Going To Be The New This, This Is Going To Be The New That, And It Never Is. The Buzz Just Doesn't Mean Anything. I'm Glad It Doesn't. Because I Think The Festival Shows That What Succeeds Is Content.
Mean
Thinking
Years
The Entertainment Person Gets A Certain Credibility, And The Politician Gets A Certain Notoriety. I'm Against It.
Politician
Credibility
I Have A Very Low Regard For Cynics. I Think It's The Beginning Of Dying.
Thinking
Dying
Lows
Be Careful Of Success; It Has A Dark Side.
Dark
Sides
Be Careful
We've Lost Our Moral Foundation, Which Allows Us To Go This Far Over. So I Don't Blame Trump. I Just Think He Is What He Is. We're The Ones Who Let That Happen. We Should Be Looking At Ourselves.
Thinking
Moral
Blame
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?
Nature
Thinking
Earth Day
I'm Always Moving Forward And Trying New Things.
Moving
Trying
New Things
I Think "quiet" Sometime Is A Greater Power Than Noise. It Can Harbor And Reveal Feelings That Can't Be Expressed.
Thinking
Feelings
Noise
I Think There Was Something That Made Us Not Pay Attention To Climate Change. Something That Was Up There. There Was A Saying When We Were Trying To Pay Attention To The Environment That People Used This Phrase Nimby - Not In My Back Yard. People Were Saying, ‘i Don’t Care, It Is Not In My Back Yard.’ But Now It’s In Everyone’s Back Yard.
Thinking
People
Trying
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.
People
Agendas
Levels
God, I Just Love Baseball.
Baseball
Baseball Love
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.
Art
Wall
Fall
Ambiguity Is Something That I Really Respond To. I Like The Complexity Of It.
Ambiguity
Complexity
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.
Men
Important
Done
The Art Of Making A Film And Its Content Are Far More Interesting To Me Than The Result Or Impact.
Art
Impact
Interesting
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.
Home
Orange
Space
Criticism Challenges Current Findings. The Effort To Defend One's Position Can Lead To Deeper Insights Or Consideration Of Options Previously Not Considered.
Effort
Challenges
Criticism
I Can't Watch Completed Films - My Wife Makes Fun Of Me.
Fun
Wife
Watches
I Don't Remember Spending Any Time With Anybody On Set. I Don't Spend A Lot Of Time With People.
People
Remember
Spending
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.
Movie
Book
Night
The Meter Is Ticking [particularly In The Face Of Climate Change], So You've Got To Get To As Much As You Can As Fast As You Can. I Grew Up With 'this Land Is Our Land,' And Public Land Doesn't Belong To That Administration Or This One. We Want Our Kids To Grow Up With Real Natural Places, Not Just Photos Of Them.
Growing Up
Real
Kids
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.
Art
Thinking
Expression
It's An Honor Putting Art Above Politics. Politics Can Be Seductive In Terms Of Things Reductive To The Soul.
Art
Seductive
Soul
I'm Not A Facelift Person. I Am What I Am.
Fake People
I Am What I Am
Facelifts
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.
Hero
Watches
Television
I Think You Just Keep Going. I've Been That Way, My Whole Life.
Thinking
Way
Whole Life
Filmgoers Are Starved For New Ideas, Voices And Visions.
Ideas
Voice
Vision
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.
Art
New York
Years
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?
Success
Blessed
Mean
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.
Forever
Yosemite
National Parks
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.
Kids
Artist
Years
I Never Had To Worry About Divestment Because I Never Invested.
Worry
The Mainstream Usually Follows Trends, It Seldom Sets Them Except For A Few Films.
Trends
Film
Mainstream
What Really Matters Is The Work. And What Matters To Me Is Doing The Work. I'm Not Looking At The Back End: "what Am I Going To Get Out Of This? What's Going To Be The Reward?" I'm Just Looking At The Work, The Pleasure Of Being Able To Do The Work. And That's What The Fun Is: To Climb Up The Mountain Is The Fun, Not Standing At The Top. There's Nowhere To Go. But Climbing Up, That Struggle, That To Me Is Where The Fun Is. That To Me Is The Thrill. But Once That's Over, That's Kind Of It. I Don't Look Too Much Beyond That.
Fun
Struggle
Mountain
Sometimes The Failures Can Be Exciting And Fun. It's Just A Step On The Road, It's Not The End Of Something.
Fun
Steps
Sometimes
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