Career Redirection Quotes

After two years of undergraduate study, it was clear that I was bored by the regime of problem-solving required by the Cambridge mathematical tripos. A very sensitive mathematics don recommended that I talk to the historian of astronomy, Michael Hoskin, and the conversation led me to enroll in the History and Philosophy of Science for my final undergraduate year.

My idol was Johann Cruyff (a Dutch soccer player) and I wanted to be like him. But when I realized that I would never be, I decided to do something else. I met the kitchen by chance and quickly became completely enamoured by it.

I think God must have had something in mind for me that was not on my radar when I first started out in New York. Back then, doing animated voices meant your career was done - it was looked down upon.

I'm not as focused on my acting career as I have been in the past.

Certainly for some time, people used to think of my solo career as somehow a side project to Porcupine Tree. No. If anything, the opposite would now have to be the case.

Dad and Mom were frustrated artists - Dad wanted to study engineering or architecture and Mom wanted to be an actress - but the world was a different place when they were young so Dad became a public works foreman and Mom became a stay-at-home mom. When I said I wanted to be a writer, they were thrilled. They did everything in their power to support me.

I was striving to become an engineer, but something happened that made me think, 'Maybe I can make games instead.'

There have been times where I lost a job or whatever, and I think, "Okay, well that's just not part of my lane."

When I was 13 or 14, I started devouring novels; literature took quite a while to take me over, but it caught up just in time to save me from becoming a mathematician.

I never wanted to be a filmmaker. I still, sometimes, think I got sidetracked by this, like this is a tangent. My main thing was painting; I was just going to do that.

The failure of The Cable Guy impacted my career. I had to start writing and acting again.

I was a science student and was aiming to be an IFS officer. But, fortunately, my destiny had some other plans for me.

As much as you plan your career and plan your life, there are events that will change everything 180 degrees, I’ve had multiple events like that. I always wanted to be a doctor and now I’m in the theater business. But these defining moments in your life are really what builds your character.

My career definitely took an unexpected change in direction when it came to 'Here Lies Love.'

I've watched people who were better actors than me disappear, and they're selling insurance now.

I was gearing up for it. I took some singing lessons. And I opened my mouth, and Atom promptly said, 'That's not going to happen. We love your voice, but maybe we could use some of your English wit.' He had doubts about it from way back. For starters, we weren't going to be doing the Italian-American crooning thing.

I became kind of a drop-out in science after I came back to America. I wanted to photograph.

I had to go to Hollywood to recharge my career.

I tap danced for ten years before I began to understand people don't make musicals anymore. All I wanted to do was be at MGM working for Arthur Freed or Gene Kelly or Vincent Minelli. Historical and geographical constraints made this impossible. Slowly but surely the pen became mightier than the double pick-up time step with shuffle.