You are either alive and proud or you are dead, and when you are dead, you can't care anyway.

They desert you even when you are alive, O madman; what good can they do when someone is dead?

'E's all 'ot sand an' ginger when alive, / An' 'e's generally shammin' when 'e's dead.

We are going to take them out dead or alive.

know if they are alive or dead.

Unbeing dead isn't being alive.