Robert Redford In His Own Words

In 2011, Esquire published a What I've Learned with Robert Redford, whose death at the age of 89 was announced today.

View in Browser  Tuesday, September 16, 2025 Esquire has a long-running interview series called What I've Learned, in which a notable figure—often an icon—shares anecdotes and wisdom from his or her life. We present them to readers in the subject's own words. In 2011, Esquire published a What I've Learned with Robert Redford, whose death at the age of 89 was announced on Tuesday. "Speak out for what you believe and what you feel," he said. "Or don't. You have to live with yourself." You can read Redford in his own words below. – Michael Sebastian, editor-in-chief     Plus: What Robert Redford never lost sight of 45 end-of-summer Amazon deals that are worth shopping 8 waterproof walking shoes that'll get you where you need to go no matter the weather What I've Learned: Robert Redford "Life is essentially sad. Happiness is sporadic. It comes in moments and that's it. Extract the blood from every moment." When I was a kid, nobody told me I was good-looking. I wish they had. I would've had a better time. You'd have to be inhuman not to be flattered. But it was so obsessive so quick that some part of me didn't trust it. 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 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. I went to Utah because I didn't know anybody there. READ THE STORY Trump's radical cronies are using Charlie Kirk's assassination to challenge the First Amendment. Charles P. Pierce notices that they're spinning the narrative on political violence. >>   From full-blown flash to understated tickers, television's top talent showed off their watches at the Emmys. Jonathan Evans counts down the best pieces. >> What It Feels Like to Climb Mount Everest in Under Seven Days We climbed towards Camp One on Mount Everest, moving single-file on a fixed line connected to our harnesses. It was around 5:00 a.m. First light had just appeared when we heard the crash to our left. Avalanche. There were 12 of us: four ex–UK Special Forces, including me, and eight Sherpas. Our goal was ambitious: Fly from London to Nepal, climb to the summit of Everest and back, then arrive back home in seven days. We knew high-altitude mountaineering was dangerous. You hear avalanches happening all over the mountain but cross your fingers it doesn't affect you. But how you react to situations is down to experience. We'd been in hairy situations before, from gunfights to being blown up. We're not risk averse. We're risk aware. As Told To Stinson Carter Cheating the Dead: The Undertaker and the Families Who Say He Scammed Them in Their Hour of Grief The mother parks by a bureaucratic brick building in downtown Houston on a January day in 2024. She takes the elevator to the third floor. She is dressed for the cameras, her long braids gathered in a tidy bun and a neat jacket snug over her black shirt. It is the day of the press conference, the day when, finally, after four months of pain, she will tell the world what she has been saying to anyone who would listen about what she saw inside her son's casket. The mother, Pamela Busby, stands with eight others behind a uniformed constable, four gold stars on each epaulet, a firearm holstered at his hip, his eyes solemn. He is one of eight constables in the county, an elected position whose deputies hold the same arrest and investigative powers as city police officers. He steps up to a lectern that bears his name—Alan Rosen—in superhero-sized letters on a vibrant blue background. By Sarah Smith Follow Us Unsubscribe | Privacy Notice | CA Notice at Collection Esquire is a publication of Hearst Magazines. ©2025 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This email was sent by Hearst Magazines, 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019-3779