Fear keeps you alive. For me, it can be very important because if you look down in a serious situation, you want to know where you're going to land, or put in another piece of protection or downclimb. Fear is a good indicator. Sometimes you might feel fear that is unreasonable and you have to say, 'Okay, I'm okay' and keep going. It's a red flag and I can either focus and get past that situation or I can go down.
Many people think climbers are crazy.
It comes from people who don't know what climbing is all about. People who understand climbing know it's a pretty controlled environment. Life is dangerous. It's guaranteed that we're all going to die, so we might as well have a good time and be careful, but you could die walking across the street. The only time I pushed my limits, was when I had to.