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.
Filmgoers are starved for new ideas, voices and visions.
Because, you know, you're in Utah. And because of its political conservatism, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.
We program the festival, after 20 years, exactly the way we did on the first day.
I work because I want to work. Work keeps me going.
If you talk about an issue, what comes back is a description of what you're wearing. Reporters only want to know how tall you are and if your teeth are capped.
People say I've gone against Hollywood, but I've tried to be independent within Hollywood, tried to be my own person.
The important thing about a sport is the people who devote their lives to it.
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.
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.
Ambiguity is something that I really respond to. I like the complexity of it.
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.
Any time I saw people treated unfairly because of race, creed, whatever - it struck a nerve.
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.
I began by doing a lot of character work on TV, just fun acting parts.
Hollywood was not a place I dreamed of getting to. I never could take seriously the obsession people have about being a celebrity or getting to Hollywood - I was born next door.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
I don't see myself as beautiful. I was a kid who was freckle-faced, and they used to call me 'hay head.'
I never had a problem with my face on screen. I thought it is what it is, and I was turned off by actors and actresses that tried to keep themselves young.
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.
I think that people should be paying a lot more attention to other issues, rather than who's the top 10 this or... who's the sexiest or the most beautiful.
I'm always drawn to stories that people don't know about, particularly when they're inside of a story that everyone knows about.
When I was a kid, nobody told me I was good-looking. I wish they had. I would've had a better time.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I think independent filmmakers, documentary filmmakers - they are journalists.
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?
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.
I can't go into a bar anywhere without someone starting to play 'the Entertainer'.
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'.
'Butch Cassidy' was the only film I ever enjoyed making.
I love making films more than anything, but it's tough.
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.
I believe the American people care a lot about the environment.
A few years after that first visit, I applied for a job in Yosemite.
I spent two summers working at Camp Curry and at Yosemite Lodge as a waiter. It gave me a chance to really be there every day - to hike up to Vernal Falls or Nevada Falls. It just took me really deep into it. Yosemite claimed me.
The Right has such antiquated ideas - if they took charge, I think they'd want to close the parks, open the land up for development. It's an ongoing battle to keep the parks strong.
I'm an impatient person, so it's hard for me to sit around and do take after take after take.
I wanted to get out of this country and experience different ways of seeing the world. So I went to Europe, but I went as an artist. I was increasing my skill set and exploring storytelling through painting.