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Time & Perspective Quote by Lynn Redgrave

"I believe I have lots of time. I have to believe that, that it won't come back, and that that's why I'm in good hands. But I also do live my life by putting nothing off"

About this Quote

Redgrave is talking herself into a bargain with fate: if she can truly believe there is "lots of time", then the fear of recurrence loses its grip. The line is structured like a spell - "I have to believe that" repeated, not for emphasis but for survival. Belief here is less a conviction than a coping technology, a way to keep the body from being reduced to a countdown clock. "That it won't come back" lands with the bluntness of someone who has already lived through the unspeakable; she doesn't dress it up because illness doesn't.

Then she swerves into a quietly radical ethic: "But I also do live my life by putting nothing off". The subtext is that optimism isn't denial; it's an operating system. Redgrave isn't saying the threat is gone. She's saying the only humane response to uncertainty is urgency without panic. In an industry built on postponement - the next role, the next review, the next reinvention - her stance reads like a personal manifesto: act now, love now, say the difficult thing now.

Context matters. Redgrave spoke publicly about her cancer and the strange mental gymnastics of recovery: you need doctors ("good hands") and you need narrative. She threads the needle between dependence and agency, between surrendering to care and insisting on a life not organized around waiting. The quote works because it refuses the inspirational cliches while still offering a workable method: believe enough to breathe, and move enough to live.

Quote Details

TopicLive in the Moment
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Redgrave, Lynn. (2026, January 16). I believe I have lots of time. I have to believe that, that it won't come back, and that that's why I'm in good hands. But I also do live my life by putting nothing off. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-believe-i-have-lots-of-time-i-have-to-believe-119224/

Chicago Style
Redgrave, Lynn. "I believe I have lots of time. I have to believe that, that it won't come back, and that that's why I'm in good hands. But I also do live my life by putting nothing off." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-believe-i-have-lots-of-time-i-have-to-believe-119224/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I believe I have lots of time. I have to believe that, that it won't come back, and that that's why I'm in good hands. But I also do live my life by putting nothing off." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-believe-i-have-lots-of-time-i-have-to-believe-119224/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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Lynn Redgrave (March 8, 1943 - May 2, 2010) was a Actress from United Kingdom.

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