Allan McNish Quotes

When you're in a race car, you're going through so many different emotions throughout that race.

Music is life. Music defines peoples' experience on this planet. Name one time in your life that wasn't punctuated by the music you listened to at the time. When people are down, they listen to music that commiserates that emotion. When people are amped up, they listen to more upbeat, loud songs.

Maybe I'll put my iPod in two minutes before. But truly, I've listened to actors say that they loved to listen to music before a shot, and I really understand that now because it puts you in the mood and gives you energy.

I've got a good memory. Sometimes it's a curse. I remember what the light was like in the room the first time I heard Van Morrison's 'Moondance.'

Music is a very big part of my preparation as an actor.

I always sleep really well, particularly before a race, when the adrenaline's pumping.

If you give it good concentration, good energy, good heart and good performance, the song will play you.

Music has a tremendous effect on me. When it's playing, I can't think or do anything other than listen. But I can write to it.

Half the time I feel like I'm appealing to the downer freaks out there. We start to play one downer record after another until I begin to get down myself. Give me something from 1960 or something; let me get up again. The music of today is for downer freaks, and I'm an upper.

I still hold on to the idea that a record can really change the way I feel.

It's hard to get that real good feeling about festivals sometimes.

When I take go-karts out with my friends, it's a disaster normally. But in the race car, I'm calm because they pay me to do this, and I have to be professional.

In World Series, everything is a bit slower than F1. But each time I sit in the car, whether it is World Series or F1, once I am in the cockpit, I am mentally prepared for what the car is. I don't have to physically drive it to remember what it is doing.

I know that I'll joke around to the last minute I get in the car. But once the helmet's on - it's sort of a cliche, but it's true - it's quite symbolic that that is 'go time,' and I'm ready to have some fun and be bad while I do it.

When you're racing, it's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting.

If you don't come walking back to the pits every once in a while holding a steering wheel in your hands, you're not trying hard enough

I do it when I'm a preparing for a role quite a bit - I sit with music. It helps influence the discovery of something. Then sometimes during filming I like to listen to the same things. It brings me back to a place where I just feel more creative and focused.

It's about feeling alive in the moment because your adrenaline is going, your thinking about that present moment, you're not somewhere else, you're not thinking about what's going to happen 10 minutes from now, and that's the reason why I love fighting, it's when I'm in there. I feel free, I feel like there's no other place I want t be. I can't even think of anything beyond that second. That's why I'm drawn to the fight, because I love the presence of it, where it brings me mentally, it's the purest thing for me.

If I get no sleep the night before a show, I feel that performance is the best one.

My thoughts before a big race are usually pretty simple. I tell myself: Get out of the blocks, run your race, stay relaxed. If you run your race, you'll win... channel your energy. Focus.

When I'm not completely loaded, it's a much more vulnerable place. I can feel the music, I can feel the energy and I really have to put it out there. When I was loaded, I was just oblivious.

I cant really imagine life without Formula One.

When you walk on a court, clear your mind of everything unrelated to the goal of playing the match as well as you can.

I chop a lot of onions because I love cooking, and the times where I've never cried chopping onions is when I'm not thinking about it, when I'm talking to someone or I'm listening to music.

If you are relaxing and subconsciously thinking about your coming race, you are going to perform at just about 100 percent efficiency.