Happy Birthday William Shatner!

My children are my life. I have three kids in total; Leslie, Lisabeth & Melanie. They are my reason to get up & live each day to the fullest

My dad was good with actions.

My mother was an exuberant, silly lady. 

There's too many people in the world.

The only subject I know anything about is myself and I don't know that too clearly.

I'm just quizzical about how things work and why things are.

I enjoyed reading all the classic authors like Isaac Asimov and Bradbury.

I can't type. Can't do it.  

My dad died of a stroke.

So many dot-com companies were formulated on air.

Exercise? A Jew doesn't exercise.

I think the acting satisfies the need and desire for approval.

All any artist can do is please themselves. 

If I'm given an opportunity to do something, I do it. Or else I fool around with it.

I'm an optimist.

I'm a performer, comedian, entertainer, writer and director. 

I'm not out to convince anybody of anything.

I think of doing a series as very hard work. But then I've talked to coal miners, and that's really hard work.

I know very little about the viral, electronic world, but I use Twitter to communicate not only information that I think some of the fans want to hear about but also ideas.

If you read my books, especially the Star Trek books and the Quest for Tomorrow books, you'll see in them the core theme of the basic humanistic questions that Star Trek asked.

A stage actor has to be 10% aware of the audience as he's performing.

I didn't want to do the sitcom thing, but I didn't know what else to do.

I've been approached to do some things with astronauts and the preparation that astronauts go through.

I did the film Generations, in which the character died, I felt like a guest for the first time. That made me very sad.

The actor is in the hands of a lot of other people, over which he has no control.

I envy the people who say, 'oh, well, I've got my name in the golden book and I'm going to be entered into the pearly gates.'

Every piece of entertainment is made with the idea that 'This is going to be terrific' and 'This is the best thing I've ever done' and then it hits the public and then the public tells you whether it's good or bad.

I've got rock 'n' roll in my blood.

I've never not appeared in front of a live audience for any longer period than a month or two.

The ability to breathe the air and drink the water will be what the wars will be about from here on in. And it's coming with alarming rapidity.

No matter how prosaic something is that you've done and been a part of again and again, there is so much more there that you haven't seen.

I'm looking for the perfect paintball movie.

I am private.

A director is a choreographer, both politically and creatively.

Yeah, I do stand-up, my own type of stand-up.

Spencer Tracy was a man who did very much what I do on a set, and that is, he comes down and he does his job, and then he goes back to his dressing room.

The great mystery of our consciousness is beyond our grasp.

Marriage is a reflection of your life in general: how you treat people, how you argue, how secure you are in your own thoughts. How vehemently do you argue your point of view? With what disdain do you view the other's point of view?

My name is William Shatner, and I am Canadian! 

A series is filled with compromises.

I love technology.

We live in grief for having left the womb, for having left the teat, then school, then home. In my case, it was leaving marriages, and the death of my wife.

I've been breeding Dobies for years. Almost won the breed in Westminster at one time.

I hate flying, flat out hate its guts.

I spent years doing 'Star Trek' bits and things, and a lot of people loved it, a lot of people mocked it.

Nature is perfect.

I think that prog rock is the science fiction of music. Science fiction speculates on what the future might be and look like and how we'll get there, and yet there's always a central theme of humanity, or there should be. Progressive rock has the same concept of exploration into the parts of the music world that hasn't been explored.

Nobody could have imagined the phenomenon that 'Star Trek' became. It's still almost impossible to imagine. 

In entertainment, whether it's movies or television or whatever, I'm a great audience, but I don't remember the names of the people I've seen or the groups that I've heard.

Here's something pompous - you take your day and artistically create it, so every moment has an artistic flavor. 

I'm not technically adept at music, but I'd love to be part of a discussion of where progressive rock ends and country music begins.

Every day I realized I would not be a star. 

I see myself as an actor with a love of music. 

My understanding is, the fans are so ravenous in Canada, they gnaw on the stars.

Voice acting is very interesting, I've done several animated projects, and you have to make the voice reflect the character and try and do as much with a word as you can with a look in a live-action film.

It's irksome to read about someone I don't recognize. It frightens me.

If someone criticizes my acting, they may be right.

Death is an absolute marvel.

With three kids, it was always very, very tight, and it was always a scramble for what was my next job. So I learned never to go into debt because I don't want those monthly payments to preoccupy my thoughts.

I'm a business major out of McGill University, I know nothing... but then I found out much later in life, nobody knows anything.

I don't watch television.

I don't think of myself as being tied.

The problem is I don't know anything or anyone. I am so focused on the immediate picture in front of me. 

When I direct and have to look at filmed scenes of myself, I suck. 

I watch movies and sports. I can count on the fingers of my hand the number of times I have watched an hour show. I never watch a half-hour show, and I never watch myself.

But if you want to know the truth, the weirdest thing that has happened has been my discovery that people who attend the conventions are filled with love.

I never watched 'Star Trek.'

All I know is that I am constantly intrigued by something I'm doing. 

I played comedies and dramas.

Everyone knows everything about all of us. That's too much knowledge!

I've blundered my way through life.

My boy, that was a TV show. I used a stunt double. I always use a stunt double. Except in love scenes. I insist on doing those myself.

I did a movie in Esperanto.

You know who I am?! I'm William Tiberius Shatner!

At 40, I went to bed for three days. I thought my life is over.

Being an icon is overrated, remember an icon can be moved by a mouse.

I'm anxious to make another film.

What does God need with a starship?

I was built for the long run, not for the short dash, I guess.

I don't want people to know me. I want them to believe my version.

I thought I was loved.

If you make a fool of yourself, you can do it with dignity, without taking your pants down. And if you do take your pants down, you can still do it with dignity.

These people who come to Comic-Con and dress up - all across the country, the rest of the population who doesn't understand are scoffing at them.

I don't know how to deal with being 80. 

Well-written words are music.

Fate gives you the finger and you accept.

I've never been without a dog. I've made trips across the country with a dog.

When there are tiers of meaning in an ad it intrigues the audience and they look for it again and again.

And I enjoyed the celebrity and the creativity that was involved in Star Trek.

My site has the whole thing - blogs, information, video interviews.

When you've done the technical part, you're then into the joy, the zen, into being. Technology no longer exists for you. You're then into the mystery of the thing you're doing. 

I don't know how I got to this point but it must be as a result of everything that has come before so if I were to change something, I might not be at this point now.

Ads need to be little pieces of entertainment.

I don't read reviews.

Instead of playing something heavily, I play it lightly. Since people like to cast cyclically, once you've done one thing, people want to put you in that bag again. And since I want to work, I let it happen. 

Gradually the live TV scene simmered out, replaced by film, and that took place in L.A. So many actors left New York. 

In my proudest moments, I think I had a real hand in the creative force of making 'Star Trek.' But most of the time, I don't think about it. 

I don't think in terms of God.

I was always working. Maybe you weren't aware of the movies I was making, or the television I was doing, or the shows I was creating, or the books I was writing; there have been thirty. But I have always been solidly at work, running as fast as I can.

I have been accused of never saying no.

I see people putting text messages on the phone or computer and I think, 'Why don't you just call?'

I believe in taking what happens as inevitable.

Things people say strike me as amusing, and I am prone to saying out loud what everybody's thinking.

There's a joy and a pain about directing where the dreams you have are becoming concrete but the attention to detail, the need for time is such that it's overwhelming at times, and the stream of responsibility.