Van Gaal is an honest guy and has always put Manchester United above all else.
Robin Van Persie is a sensational striker and one of the best in Europe.
Guys like Chuckie, Laidback Luke, Ferry Corsten, Armin van Buuren and many other Dutch DJs were all influential for me growing up.
I probably remember more about ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ than Dick Van Dyke does.
I know Jonathan Van Ness from comedy, and he’s got this wonderful show on Funny or Die called ‘Gay of Thrones.’
As you get up in your thirties, the van touring is not a possibility anymore. We can’t all be Mike Watt.
When I was a kid, and it was time to go to college, I thought, ‘College is for people who don’t have the street smarts to make it on their own – get in a band, get in a van, and get rockin’.
I didn’t work hard to make Ruby perfect for everyone, because you feel differently from me. No language can be perfect for everyone. I tried to make Ruby perfect for me, but maybe it’s not perfect for you. The perfect language for Guido van Rossum is probably Python.
Islamophobia first appeared in my life on 11 September 2001. I was coming back from college and didn’t know what had happened. A white van stopped and a man got out. He spat on me, yelled a profanity, and then threw a can of coke in my direction. I cried as I walked home.
However you feel about Dimebag, this is one of the most influential metal guitar players of the ’90s. I was just talking to someone that I am hiring to bring on the tour who said that, when he was at the funeral, that Eddie Van Halen came and put his striped guitar in the coffin. That’s a pretty big deal.
When I lived in Hungerford, it was wake up 5:30 A.M., get to the van at 6 A.M. with eight other blokes, drive to Shinfield, which is in Reading, 45 minutes away. Start at 7:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. with two half-hour breaks and then home. Train Tuesday and Thursday and then play on Saturday.
I wanted to paint in a folk-artist-y way. My heroes were Van Gogh, Gauguin, Matisse, and Rembrandt. I think Picasso is about as a modern as I got. But I incorporated things that they rejected as well as movements that happened later.
As a player I had a few idols but that’s not really interesting any more. I was a striker and focusing on guys like Marco van Basten but as a coach I want to make my own footsteps.
The Berlin of the ’20s formed the foundation of my future education… the Berlin of the UFA studios, of Fritz Lang, Lubitsch and Erich Pommer. The Berlin of the architects Gropius, Mendelsohn and Mies van der Rohe. The Berlin of the painters Max Libermann, Grosz, Otto Dix, Klee and Kandinsky.
I’m a huge sports guy, so getting messages from guys I grew up watching and following – Scott Van Pelt, Chris Paul, Charles Barkley, Adam Schefter – was really special.
I love romantic comedies. They’re for me the easiest thing to do and the most natural to do. There’s nothing natural about holding an uzi hanging out of a moving van shooting at people. That’s not second nature to me, thank God.
My Dad used to tell us: ‘En este pais, ustedes van a poder lograr todas las cosas que nosotros no pudimos’ ‘In this country, you will be able to accomplish all the things we never could.’
Some of my fondest memories are of being in a van. It can be exhausting, but many adventures can be had.
I was a typical Valley teen, in smoggy Van Nuys.
Even failures can turn into something positive if you just keep going. I wrote a television pilot called ‘Head of the Family.’ CBS didn’t want it. It was considered a failure. But we reworked it. A year later, it became ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show.’
I’m so confusing to wrestling promoters, and I’m used to that, but because I stayed in ECW and learned how to express myself the way, ah, that I could connect with my fans, it made my strong Rob Van Dam character uncompromising… and I owe that to ECW.
When I came back from filming ‘Abduction’, I told my agent: I’m staying in London now. If it takes doing children’s theater from the back of a van in Kilburn, that’s OK. I need to be with my family. My job is to keep the family together and provide for them.
United fans don’t care if the team only has 40 per cent possession as long as they are watching an attacking team. My experience was that the supporters understood that even our best teams, even the teams with Peter Schmeichel or Edwin van der Sar in goal, were going to concede goals.
Louis van Gaal and I have a relationship that goes beyond that which is normal between a player and a coach.
And then Dick called and said, I’m going to do a special called Dick Van Dyke and the other woman, that would be you, because every time I try to check into a hotel with my wife, they look at me as though I’m cheating on Laura.
On ‘Van Halen,’ I was a young punk, and everything revolved around the fastest kid in town, gunslinger attitude. But I’d say that at the time of ‘Fair Warning,’ I started concentrating more on songwriting. But I guess in most people’s minds I’m just a gunslinger.
I think it’s important for bands to rough it. Whether you’re in a van or a bus, it’s still tough. You still have to stand in a two hour catering line with flies everywhere in the heat, and you still have to lug your gear.
I was obsessed with New York early on. I was watching sitcoms that were set in or around New York, like ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show.’ I was always very fascinated with the people who were on ‘What’s My Line?’ and I always had an incredible obsession with the city.
My dad just left high school in ’69, went to Woodstock, and after half a year of college for architecture, just took off for Alaska. He bought a van and went straight into the mountains and built a cabin.
I met a landlord who will pay you to move at the end of the week and let you use his van. That’s a really nice kind of eviction. I met a landlord who will take your door off. There are 101 ways to move a family out.
If I could work with Joan Van Ark every day for the rest of my life I would.
If someone asked me if I would be interested in doing a Hindi film, I would not say no. There were offers in the past, but something about ‘Karwaan’ just called out to me. The storyline of three unique characters in a van with a coffin seemed fresh, and I got a good vibe from the team.
So yes, I do want to try and keep things going if I can. I have a few things brewing… And if it doesn’t happen, I did buy an ice cream van a while ago. So I always have that to fall back on.
I’ve had a lot of writers, in particular, who said they got into writing because of the ‘Van Dyke Show.’ They said it looked like fun.
I love players like Thurston Moore. I mean, you can put notes down on a sheet of paper, and if you practice and get your chops up, you can play like an Eddie Van Halen or a Steve Vai. But nobody can do what Thurston Moore does; he’s his own guy. He talks through his instrument in a language that’s all his own.
My ancestors came from Co Roscommon, transported to Van Diemen’s Land for stealing food.
I ended up buying a van to chuck all my fishing gear in because I couldn’t keep using my car.
Van Gogh never made a penny in his entire lifetime. He painted because it was his soul, his excitement. It was what aligned him with his Source of being. It’s the same with me and writing.
I got into rock music at thirteen, listening to Van Halen, learned how to play the electric guitar.
I like playing the contrasting roles. It what inspires me to act. If I look back on my career I am happy that I have gotten to play a wide variety of different roles, from Mike Dexter, to Van Ray in Fast Lane, to Dr. Cullen to Coop.
Louis van Gaal trusted me; I played a lot of games.
We’d go out in Larry’s hippie van and drive out all around Dallas. He loved Chinese food, he’d go in and say. Remember me Major Nelson, me and my friends here are making this show called Dallas, have you got a table for us? It would work every time.
If you really stop to think about it, the last really big guitar hero was Eddie Van Halen, and that was back in the ’80s – early ’80s, you know what I mean? That’s a long time ago.
Sergio Ramos is very good. I know him very well: great defender, great with the ball. Van Dijk is also the same: so strong, very good in the air, scores goals. Two big players.
If we weren’t in this band, some of us wouldn’t be playing at all. You have tiffs with someone when he has smelly feet in the touring van, but we all respect each other as friends first.
I have many favorite artists… Van Gogh as one, but he didn’t really sing a lot!
When I was at Liverpool, I asked about Van Dijk when he was at Groningen and then at Celtic. But I was told he wouldn’t be for us at the time. Van Dijk could have jumped from Celtic to a Liverpool.
I can’t deny that Eric Clapton’s and Eddie Van Halen’s lead stuff has influenced a stack of people, but for me, it’s the rhythm thing that’s way more impressive and important to a band.
Townes Van Zandt ranks alongside Kris Kristofferson and Bob Dylan. He inspired so many songwriters to shoot for something that’s timeless.
We’re playing small clubs and doing it all in a van. I have management, and they’ve done a good job of getting our tour plan together, but we’re still having to go and rent the vehicles and all the little things you need to do. You really have to watch your budget.
Someone who copies a Van Gogh does not therefore become Van Gogh, and the same would go for Mozart or anyone else who contributed something that was original. Certainly in the way that I described visualizing numbers in abstract, meaningful shapes.
