Alan Vega Quotes

Do you want to live life, or do you want to escape life?

I didn't think I was an actor and fought it for a long time. Nobody paid for that but me.

To tell her that I joined the parachute club was too hard for me. I didn't want to trouble her; besides, I was not completely sure about the success of my new adventure.

I've always done more than I ever thought I would. Becoming a professor - I never would have imagined that. Writing books - I never would have imagined that. Getting a Ph.D. - I'm not sure I would even have imagined that. I've lived my life a step at a time. Things sort of happened.

I'm a masochist in some ways. I look for things that I think I can't do, then, for some bizarre reason, I really want to do them. Maybe one day I'll take the easy route.

I could have easily been too afraid to say 'yes' to Chicago, because it requires so much I haven't done before. If I am a flop at singing and dancing, maybe my love for it will carry me through.

You can't be a human and a guy and not connect with Pippin... I often feel like Pippin. I come offstage sometimes like 'Oh my God, I've got to do this next time! I've gotta go there. I'm going to make this choice.'

I have never stopped considering not becoming a writer.

I'm sure not afraid of success and I've learned not to be afraid of failure. The only thing I'm afraid of now is of being someone I don't like much.

When I was younger, I did my first audition at 'Eurovision.' I was about 17. After my first audition, I blacked out; I was just like, 'I can't do this.' I'm not knocking it or anything - it's been around for years. I'm just very, very happy I made that decision myself. I think that's one of the best decisions I've ever made.

I think part of what acting did for me is it kind of represents all my greatest fears. I'm sort of compelled to do it, but at the same time, it's so frightening. But I think that the things that frighten me the most in life are the things I should be doing.

It took me a long time to even dare to envision myself as a writer. I was very uncertain and hesitant and afraid to pursue a creative life.

I was actually looking for answers where I kept asking myself - what am I doing?

I had money, but I still didn't know what to do with my life.

Initially, I resisted going into acting. You want to have your own identity, and I thought about doing other things, but that didn't last very long.

You come to a certain age in life and wonder, 'I am holding back for what?' Why not just say it?

I reached a point in my private life where I started having these thoughts about changing. But I was paralyzed by fear, that I would lose everything that I had worked very hard to achieve up until that point.

You can't call it an adventure unless it's tinged with danger. The greatest danger in life, though, is not taking the adventure at all. To have the objective of a life of ease is death. I think we've all got to go after our own Everest.

Because the intention wasn't always to be an actor, that hasn't been my number one guiding principle.

I was a young kid from Long Island who wanted to do something large with her life, so I can relate to that.

I had a job on college campus. I lost that job, but on my way home I heard an inner voice that said go out for the baseball team. I was a walk-on, and I was actually petrified as a walk-on because you're not an athlete.

I started studying at 26. Before that, I never thought of acting as something that I would ever try.

I feel prematurely old. I'm actually having this major belated quarter-life crisis. I'm turning 30 in a couple of weeks. I've been thinking a lot about mortality. A lot about what I'm going to do with my life and how to enjoy it. One of the things I'm going to work on is being more spontaneous, letting go, embracing the beauty of come-what-may.

Over and over again, I'm trying to express or communicate these big and small struggles to the world, and really to myself.

I like the idea of being so passionate about everything I do and the fact that I might wake up tomorrow and say 'I want to be a chef,' and just pour myself into that.