Quotes About Identity

My stage name has always been 'Armin van Buuren.' When I really started DJ'ing professionally, I already had a few U.K. hits under my belt under the name 'Armin', so I couldn't really change that anymore.

I saw Ashley train every day and I said, 'This is what I want but better.' That was my motivation. He taught me the game, how to play nicely and sometimes dirty, all those kind of things. But I didn't become Ashley Cole. I'm Patrick van Aanholt.

I had a desperate need to be Van Gogh or something. Some tremendous artist. Jack's so successful, what's wrong with me, why isn't this working for me? I hated myself.

I have to accept my role. I will never kill myself like Vincent Van Gogh. Nor will I paint beautiful water lilies like Monet. I can't do that. I'm in the idiot role of being a kiddie book person.

The terrorists who committed the 2003 Istanbul attacks were locals, that is, Turks. And when filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered in the Netherlands last year, the murderer and his supporters were also part of the Muslim community.

People tend to forget you. I didn't want people to go, 'That is that guy that used to play in Van Halen. What's his name again?'

I think all my albums have concentrated on songs, I've never taken the typical Van Halen route to try and become a guitar hero.

I grew up in Vancouver, man. That's where more than half of my style comes from.

I was born in England, but then I lived in Calgary, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, India, Vancouver, London, Toronto, and now L.A.

I'm living in L.A. but my heart's in Vancouver.

Vancouver is home. I spent a huge amount of time here as a kid growing up with my mom, with my grandparents who lived here.

Vancouver is the square root of negative one. Technically it shouldn't exist, but it does. I can't imagine living anywhere else.

I love cities. New York, Montreal, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, Toronto, L.A... but, I do choose to live in Vancouver. It's home.

You're not just playing for one city in Toronto, you're playing for Vancouver, Montreal, Edmonton.

A studio gangster dupes people into believing he's a tough guy, but in reality he's the former student body president and member of the National Honor Society. Once Vanilla Ice was fingered as a studio gangster, his career was over. Thank God.

I had no interest in being your basic vanilla girl. I've been lucky enough that I haven't had to play that.

I'm tired of living the vanilla, non-offensive life. I think that's a really sad way to spend my life, and I lived it like that because that's what I was brought up in, taught to not rock the ship.

I guess if I'm a product, either you're chocolate, you're vanilla or you're butterscotch. You can't be all three.

In New York, Kid Carter was pure vanilla for a city with stronger tastes.

I can remember being a kid and watching Vanilla Ice and it made me smile... I love it. I love that. I can remember seeing Vanilla Ice and then through time he stopped being Vanilla Ice.

I think that everybody has their own interpretations of what it means to be American. But from my vantage point, being black and successful in the Unites States of America is the epitome of being American.

I'm tired of being considered vapid for liking pop music or caring about fashion as if these things inherently lack substance or as if the things I enjoy somehow make me a lesser person.

There's a misconception that maybe I'm overly confident or a little vapid or that I am a stereotypical, bratty, spoiled girl who doesn't have much to bring to the table other than how people perceive her physically.

To be is to be the value of a variable.