James Levine Quotes

When you're in college, you really don't know where you're going to end up, but you know who you want to be along that journey.

If you're successful at a young age, no matter the profession, there has to come a time when you reevaluate everything, what it means to you. 'Is this what I want to do for the rest of my life?'

I never knew that I'd still be doing this so many years later.

The big turn in the late '90s was that I realized I was going to be doing this for a long time. I was fairly sure I was going to be an actor for the rest of my life, which I think calmed me down.

If you knew me before Myspace, you'd probably thought I'd have been a scholar teaching philosophy in a university my whole life. If you met me before college, you'd probably have thought I'd be a musician for my entire life.

I remember, when I started wrestling at 21, I thought, 'By the time I'm 30, I'm sure I'll probably be on my way out and be ready to have kids.' But that time flew by so fast!

Could I stay at Bayern my entire career? I'm not the type of person who looks that far ahead. I am setting short-term goals instead.

I initially went into 'Coronation Street' for three months. If they had said back then, 'Do you want to do it for six years?' I probably would have said, 'I don't think so.'

I never set out to be a businessman

Sometimes I imagine myself looking back on right now and I think like where will I be standing when I look back Will right now look like the beginning of a great life or... or what

I always wanted to be an actress, but I was embarrassed to say so, and somehow I found myself in the dance track. I'm very competitive, and I wanted to be the best in that field, too, although it didn't really speak to me.

I'm okay with the path that I'm on, but it's fascinating to think, 'I could've been a gay guy in Key West. I could be working at an insurance company in Lansing. But somehow, this is what's happening.'

Getting into the glamour industry was not an option for me. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would get to this point. My family is not at all related to this industry.

Philly will be the place for me for my whole career.

I had been laughed at my whole life through school, and I never really thought of it as a vocation. I mean, I started off as a soldier, and then I went into the university thinking I was going to be a journalist, but comedy kind of fell on my head and demanded I pursue it.

I never consciously thought about going all the way through the 'Gonzaga farm system,' but that's the way it happened.

I was with Mass Appeal solely for almost two years.

I thought that's what you did, you know? You graduate high school, you went to work.

Over the years, I thought many times about how my life would have changed if I had been drafted and Styx never had happened. Even if I hadn't been wounded or emotionally scarred, it would have changed my whole timetable.

Lot of people know very early what they want, but I didn't know I wanted acting.

My mom just wanted me to do anything that was academic, whether it was become a doctor or be a lawyer. Engineering suited her... then I dropped out. It was not what I wanted to do at all; it just felt so unnatural, and I couldn't put my finger on why. I just knew it wasn't for me.

I guess my career has gone in a roundabout way.

I was sitting in the nosebleeds eating hot dogs and watching Georges St. Pierre win the world title from Matt Hughes. Like never in my wildest dreams if someone would have tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'Hey, seven years from now you're going to be down there doing the same thing' would I have believed them.

What's more interesting than the arc of lives?

My life and my career have been a series of happy and not so happy accidents.