Happy Birthday Armin Shimerman!

Well I certainly had a good time. I was a big Star Trek fan before I was on Star Trek, I watched the original like any good fan and was very happy to be a part of it. So I'm very honoured to be a part of the Star Trek franchise and it introduced me to a lot of wonderful people who I wouldn't have met if I had not been on Star Trek.

I’m particularly proud of the fifth season story ‘Business As Usual’ because it shows Quark as much more of a thinking, deeper person in the sense that he has a real problem to solve.

Well, I just learned about different cultural things. It took me a year to figure out why Joss wrote the way he wrote, and now I'm a major fan of his. He's an incredible writer. But he was just tuned on to young people's patois. He wrote it brilliantly. But I didn't – being older and not having any children, this was sort of slightly different language to me. But, when I saw it on the screen, I went, "Oh god. Yeah, it works perfectly. Look at that." So that was part of it. Working with young people, just their energy made me feel better. They were always up, they were always excited about being at work. They were always exploring and laughing and that was just different than most of the sets I'd ever been on. I loved that.

We were right across from each other for years on the lot, but I never met Jeri Ryan until Boston Public.

I'm five foot six. I brought the experience of being a short person in a tall society, and that is something that only somebody who is my height understands.

There are a number of episodes in which he must face moral dilemmas, such as ‘Bar Association’ and ‘Looking for Par’mach in All the Wrong Places.’ I always saw Quark as much more of a dramatic character than the show’s writers, who always saw him as sort of comic relief. They did give me some dramatic episodes, but there was always a lot of comedy mixed in.

I didn't take anything from the set, at the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I wanted to remember everything the way it was.

I've acted all my life. I had the good fortune to spend my youth on Broadway doing four different shows. Three Penny Opera, St. Joan, Broadway, and the Richard Rodgers musical version of I Remember Mama. This followed by many years of what we call Regional Theatre and then I was seduced by the dark side of the force and left (well actually returned to) for Hollywood to start a television career. Its been a wonderfully satisfying and creative life of acting, writing, directing, and teaching.

Rick told me at the end of the audition process for Quark that the part had been written for me but I still had to try out for it. I was thrilled when I heard that they were doing a third Star Trek series, Deep Space Nine, but when I discovered they were also going to have a regular Ferengi character in it I was determined to get the part. I’ve always been a big fan of the show and the idea of my possibly making a bigger contribution to the Trek myth other than my work on The Next Generation really appealed to me.

I have nothing to hide. I’m selling quality merchandise to select clientele.

You know, Commander, I think I’ve figured out why humans don’t like Ferengi. The way I see it, humans used to be a lot like Ferengi : greedy, acquisitive, interested only in profit. We’re a constant reminder of a part of your past you’d like to forget. But you’re overlooking something. Humans used to be a lot worse than the Ferengi. Slavery, concentration camps, interstellar wars - we have nothing in our past that approaches that kind of barbarism. You see ? We’re nothing like you. We’re *better*.

I have a dream - a dream that one day all people - humans, Jem‘Hadar, Ferengi, Cardassians - will stand together in peace around my Dabo tables.

Whatever you’re going to do, it’s not fair.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.