When I was a teenager, I wanted to be a rock star, not an actor. It means I can do what I want on my own terms.
I wanted to try to write songs on the piano to get a different flavor.
For my 10th birthday, what I wanted was Beatle boots and a Beatle wig. My parents couldn't find Beatle boots, but down at the dime store, Woolworths or someplace, they found a Beatle wig!
I am a little older and understand the nature of the business - the older you get the more your skills supposedly diminish, but I think I am getting wiser in how to use my physical skills. That's the frustrating part when you put so much heart and desire into things and feel like you are not wanted.
When I started out, I didn't have any desire to be an actress or to learn how to act. I just wanted to be famous.
I'd wanted to be a writer and when I came back to New York worked as a musician too, but I found my writing starting to get more and more referential to cinema.
If you always wanted to wait for something better, you'd never buy anything, right?
I do paint, and I wanted to actually be a painter. Sometimes I'll whip out paints. It's tough to find the motivation, but it's also a solitary, lonely occupation. What I like about acting is that it is such a collaborative thing.
I was so sure I wanted to be a novelist. I would spend hours and hours every day writing. Little stories about nothing in particular. I recall one about someone with an illness. But my dedication wasn't really healthy, and it reached the point where I wasn't sleeping. My mum would tell me, 'You need to go outside to get some fresh air.'
Most actors are like, 'I want to be more like Marlon Brando.' But when I was a little kid, I just wanted to be an action hero! Then I grew up, and my interests were different.
I wanted to go to acting school, and I did a few modeling jobs to pay for acting school. I never aspired to be a model. I met lots of photographers, and I learned a lot about light - as a source of love and illumination, light as a gift of love. On film, that's a massive contribution.
I didn't know whether I wanted to be an actress or a singer then.
Victor Saville was bad news because he wanted money just to do one big picture.
Before that I wanted to be a magazine illustrator - I probably would have painted Gothic scenes.
I wasn't sure what it would take to make it in the theater, but despite the struggle, that was all I ever really wanted.
What I wanted to hear didn't exist, so it was necessary for me to go out and create it.
I've spent my life pursing excellence as an artist, which is what I always wanted to do anyhow.
I've always wanted to be able to let myself go over the edge.
When I was four, I just wanted to drive, I collected toy cars. Where does that sort of thing come from? In hindsight you go, 'Oh, liked it because of this.' Maybe it's just the wheel.
I had the perm because I wanted wash-and-wear hair. I didn't want to be bothered with it.
I've always done what I wanted to do.
Of all the projects I've ever done, 'Stargate' is the only one from the beginning intended to be a trilogy. We always wanted to do parts two and three, but the thinking was they didn't want to do anything other than the TV series.
When I was a little kid, I wanted to be, like, you know, a movie star, you know? Or, I always have interest in movie, you know? Because I like the visual aspect of the movies, et cetera.
I first learned that there were black people living in some place called other than the United States in the western hemisphere when I was a very little boy, and my father told me that when he was a boy about my age, he wanted to be an Episcopal priest, because he so admired his priest, a black man from someplace called Haiti.
People would ask me to autograph their bodies and then the next time I'd see them on tour they'd have my autograph tattooed. I decided I wouldn't write on people anymore, but I'd give them arms and legs and if they wanted those autographed I'd do that.
I've gone down several paths. I started school as an engineer, but underneath it all, I knew I wanted to use instruments, not build them.
I like to be able to present myself in two or three different ways because I've never really wanted to rest on my laurels and be something that people expected.
I've learned that in order to achieve what I wanted, it made more sense to negotiate than to defend the autonomy of my work by pounding my fist on the table.
Every Shania Twain interview ends with someone asking, 'Which Beatles album have you always wanted to cover, given the chance?'
Every transportation department at schools thought that there should be a bike buddy program. They thought that bicycle commuters wanted to find another buddy to bike with to campus, which is a nice idea. But the consumer demand for that was about zero.
For me, the glory of my first 25 years as a writer was I could put things off as long as I wanted.
I'm not the kind of person that would step on people just to get where I wanted to be, but I have crossed moral boundaries when I've either been afraid or desperate.
I wanted to further my education, so I went on to get a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and came back and served about ten years in the Canadian Navy as what we call a combat systems engineer.
The U.S. Olympic spirit award is an award that is given to an athlete who embodies the Olympic spirit in more ways than just on the playing field, in showing incredible perseverance, in overcoming obstacles, and what we wanted to do is have everybody can vote on-line.
I don't know, you know all through high school I just knew I wanted to do it.
We worked so hard, spent so much time in weight room and in camps to be where we are today. We wanted to come out and be as good as any team in the state, to prove we could hang with any team at any time.
