When I did finally get to the circus as an adult, I was very impressed by the trapeze artist. But, being 6 feet 3 inches and over 200 pounds, there was no way I could do a trapeze act. If I fell I'd take the catcher with me.
— John de Lancie
I don't physically enjoy watching TV. I don't enjoy the commercials.
It was fans... who understood 'Star Trek' and brought it back to life. 'Hill Street Blues,' 'The Paper Chase,' and 'Til Fly Away' all got second chances... So did 'Gunsmoke' and 'Cheers.' It's very hard to change a network's mind, but it can be done.
I don't think that 'Legend' was the absolute greatest show on television.
I was raised on the classics - Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and others.
I mean, an actor's got to be known for something. Typecasting is an unfortunate kind of reflex punishment for having done a good job. But what's the alternative? To not do a good job?
I live in such a free-lance world and I've done 'Trek' so infrequently, when you really think about it, that continuity really isn't an issue to me. I live in a much more undetermined, gypsylike world.
The perspective is that one week out of the year does not a career make nor enough income make.
I hadn't watched 'Star Trek' when I was a kid.
The thing about good acting is asking, how much are you going to reveal and when should you let the viewers' imagination take over?
I'm not a great 'Star Trek' fan, but I love science fiction.
No technology comes close to the effect of a live symphony orchestra.
I'd really like to think Picard and Q are each other's Jekyll and Hyde. That's an interesting way to look at their relationship, and it gives you a pretty good idea of who Q is.
Q is one big stew that keeps on boiling.
Being idly hanging around, and that's not good for an actor to do.
I have to say as the years have gone on I'm getting a little tired of just Q, because I do a lot of other things.
It's not like I go around trying to imprint all the characters I play with Q.
Star Trek' ushered in the end of the Westerns. Then the canvas switched to the sci-fi canvas.
I'm sure Roddenberry in his wildest dreams never would have thought he would have gotten five TV series out of his idea.
That was the great, great thing about 'Star Trek,' that it was a show that people could tune into at all sorts of different levels.
I watch all of the Q episodes. I just don't remember them after I've turned off the television.
I'm of the opinion that it flies in the face of reason not to believe. The odds are too great against you to not believe that there is some sort of extraterrestrial life out there.
I can only do Q when they ask me.
I really didn't follow Star Trek.
I'm never what anybody envisions as the prototype of a character. My looks are just odd enough so that I'm just not what people think of.
Our world has us always here. We will be here from now 'til the end of time... maybe not! And that's the scary part!
If a person says they're an athlete but they don't compete in sports, then you wonder if they're really an athlete. It's the same with acting. There are lots of people who call themselves actors but never act.
There's something inherently life-denying in television and radio and stuff that's canned.
Q is a terrific part.
I'd be happy to have run rehearsals for a month, but it gets expensive to do that.
The best movie for me is a science fiction movie, the best books for me are science fiction books. I love this stuff.
My first interaction with Gene was that after I auditioned I walked out of the room and then this big guy walks out with me, and he puts his hand on my shoulder and he says, 'You make my words sound better than they are.' And I said, 'Well, you must be the writer.' And he said 'I'm Gene Roddenberry.' And I had no idea who that was.
The problem with Alien Voices 'was we had four really terrific years. And then it began to be about selling: Simon & Schuster wanted whatever, 40,000 units sold a year.'
I'm not a fan of Fox News. They do more to pervert the truth in this country than most organizations that I know of.
The part of television I like are things that have a documentary feel to them.
Actors need to be known for having done something, because the alternative isn't so good.
Certainly when 'Legend' came around, I was very anxious to get it because I immediately recognized it as something worth doing.
It's great fun to have the license to say damn near anything you want, short of being offensive.
I've always been a Geographic fan, from as early as there was television.
I don't think I will be playing Q again. I could be wrong, but I'm not counting on it. The character has come from the bad boy to being the status quo, really.
I'm really not a television watcher.
I kind of pride myself in the fact that when people hire me it's always considered creative casting.
'War of the Worlds' was a goof delivered as news bulletins. It was the beginning of an erosion that now has us in trouble. We just don't know where to get the truth. It was a piece made 56 years ago with all good intentions that still abused the public's trust. It was that little marble, that little push, and now no one trusts the media.
You have to risk to get ahead The person whos always hugging the tree trunk and never walking out onto the skinny branches will never succeed. Sometimes you have to walk out onto the skinny branches, and that means having goals, taking a risk.
Before television, there was a piano in many homes in this country. People played instruments on an amateur level and because of that, they became informed amateurs. We've lost that.
When I did 'Farpoint,' I didn't even know I was going to do a second show, and the experience went on for seven years.
'Petrushka' was not conceived as a children's ballet, even though it involves puppets. We're on the outer limits of what's child-appropriate here.
Q was naughty, you know? He's naughty. He's not evil. He's not all good. He's sort of bad. You get to play him the way you role out of bed in the morning.
Almost everywhere in the world you go, people will come up and say, "Oh my God, you're from 'Star Trek.'"
I don't know how to carry a tune.
