Robert Redford

Robert Redford is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, model, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing "Ordinary People", and one for Lifetime Achievement in 2002.

He was interviewed in Playboy magazine, November 2007:

Playboy: Do you believe in an afterlife? Redford: I'm not sure I do. I've explored every religion, some very deeply, enough to know there's not one philosophy that can satisfy me. Problems can't be solved with one way of thinking. If anything is my guide, nature is. That's where my spirituality is. I don't believe in organized religion, because I don't believe people should be organized in how they think, in what they believe. That has never been driven home as hard as with this administration. When somebody thinks God speaks to him, you've got trouble. If God is speaking to the president, he's speaking with a forked tongue, because the behavior of this administration doesn't seem very godlike or spiritual.

I often think of the arc of my life as having moved from a very narrow space to a much larger one. Growing up in a working-class world in Los Angeles, I had no luxuries or entertainment. I was ashamed to have people come to our house. You're defined by that, and you try to take every opportunity that comes to you with whatever skills you've got. In my case, I acted awhile and then tried to advance those skills. Theater led to TV, TV led to film, and acting led to directing and producing, which led me to think about Sundance. Each time, I got itchy. I wanted more authorship, more ownership of the subject. It's all part of the adventure I've sought since I was a kid. Is there an afterlife? As far as I know, this is it. It's all we've got. You take your opportunities and you go for it.

-- Submitted by Jim Lippard on 4 Nov 2007, text via 3 Nov 2007 post by Aditya Mishra to the SKEPTIC mailing list