Happy Birthday Scott Bakula!

I've shot a lot of places, and I've produced. I always thought, 'Gosh, when you shoot in a big city, it's so difficult.' And New York, I always think, 'Where are you going to park the trucks? How are you going to stop the traffic?'

Clive Barker is just genius, and he's incredibly gifted in so many different ways. He can write and direct and paint and do all these different things, and he can do them all extremely well.

I've done great theatre, great films and had a lot of opportunities in television. I also love to sing, and I've been able to do that once or twice in the television shows.

You want to try and bring a character to life in an honest a way as you possibly can. It doesn't matter whether he's a doctor, an actor, a car salesman or a captain of a starship. If you can bring truth and honesty to that character, then your audience will believe you.

I like pop, rock n' roll, big band, Broadway - I like all those elements.

Years ago, I did a CBS audition. I was nervous. They introduced me as 'Scott Bakoola.' Not a good sign. I also didn't get the show. 

The longer you are in acting business, the more you cherish the times when you're working with people that do great work, and can figure out how to enjoy themselves while they're doing the great work.

It's a joyful, humbling feeling to be in different places around the planet, and people have seen shows that I'm proud of being a part of, that do have things to say about the human condition, the planet, and who we are and where we've come from, that will sustain.

When you get into any kind of period work, or any kind of prosthetic work, or anything that alters what your 8×10 looks like, it's the joy of escaping and becoming somebody else. And it is definitely freeing.

I get nervous even guesting on other people's shows.

I never intended to be on television or in a movie. The theater was all I ever dreamed about, once I decided to try to make it as a business profession. All this other stuff has just been icing.

In the fantasy, sci-fi world, the fans are so discerning and they're so tough and they're so intelligent, and they're so critical.

When I used to do tours, I'd be anxious and nervous on the plane returning to New York. I now realize the reaction was because I was coming back unemployed. Actors are constantly being put to the test.

If I can avoid looking at myself, I will. I don't care to examine myself or see much of what I do. I never care how I look. 

Being an actor opened doors for me to explore my emotions as different people and characters, and expand my own inner soul.

I was a huge fan of the original 'Star Trek,' and I'd never even dreamed that I would someday be captain of a starship.

By all standards, except for 'Star Trek' standards, 98 episodes of any television show is a wildly successful run.

Well, I'm... first and foremost I'm a theater guy and everything that I know comes from the theater. 

'Behind The Candelabra' is an HBO movie. It's the Liberace story. Michael Douglas and Matt Damon. I play a small part in it. I play a choreographer who introduces, brings Matt Damon to Las Vegas for the first time.

I am very much against weapons in space. And I wish we could be spearheading that program to come to some kind of international agreement so that doesn't happen. That is my only - fear - in further space exploration like always, we hope it doesn't get abused.

If you're a fan of Shirley MacLaine just like I am, I'd kinda go anywhere to work with her.

I'm constantly involved in theater, looking at theater, trying to do work in theater, support theater. And that's kind of my creative passion.

I've composed a fair amount in my life, and some of them have made it on to the screen, some compositions that I've done, a few. And I like doing that. I had never really considered doing a full-length thing. I've worked with other people creating full-length pieces.

The biggest challenge for everybody to realize out there is that we're in a very complicated business world and that were all under one umbrella and it's very challenging for everybody to figure out where the priorities lie and where the loyalties lie.

My favorite thing about running is running when it's as hot as it can be, which is a little odd.

I've always had an affinity for lawyers. My dad is a lawyer. He's retired now. My brother is a lawyer. 

I'm a runner from sports. I've been a runner, but I wasn't a cross-country runner or anything like that. I played a lot of soccer growing up.

I don't think that a company should own a studio and the network, and program for their own network. It hurts the creativity - it is not a level playing field.

My kids are good athletes and runners. They run in a bunch of sports. 

And I've always felt comfortable certainly in a courtroom because you're just performing. And there was a time in my life when I thought when I grew up I'd be a trial lawyer myself.

Running for me has always been a great place to get away. It's a great stress reliever for me. It's great if I need to be working on something in my mind, whether it's things I need to be memorizing or thinking about, or I have some presentation coming up.

I love 'White Christmas.' That's one of my favorites just because I love the music. I love the story, Bing Crosby. It's just one of my all time favorites. And it's hard to have a Christmas without seeing a little bit of Jimmy Stewart and angels running around town.

For actors, we always feel like there shouldn't be any divide for anybody. The industry is the one that kind of creates the idea that if you're such-and-such an actor, you can't be on the big screen.

What we are as actors, for better and for worse, is visible. Scott Bakula Better, Worse, Visible To do something for other people when they need it most just feels good.

The movies are about big tent pole movies and big action and effects.

I went into show business because I love to work with people, and what I enjoy most about acting is rehearsing and getting to know people and their talents, forming relationships. Working in this business, barriers drop and you get into people real quickly.

Sunday night was such a big night for television when I was growing up - you know, 'The Wonderful World of Disney.' 

The end of shows are a nightmare for everybody because there is so much pressure to satisfy everyone, which of course you can't do.

For a long-running TV show, you're looking for a character who is interesting and vibrant and you can imagine going into all kinds of different areas. 

The great thing about show business is that there's no mandatory retirement age.

The reality of our business is that for every actor who's rolled up his tent and given up and gone home, the next day you hear about some shoe salesman at Macy's who had this audition and now he's Harrison Ford. There's always that carrot out there in our business.

I've always been told I had an old face. So when I was in my 20s, I never got to play a teenager.

The guy that picked me up at the airport in 1985 when I was out in L.A. for my first audition was selling a script. I was a nobody coming off a plane to read for a new show. 

Ideally, people find mates with whom they can express both their masculine and feminine sides.

The further away you can get away from yourself as an actor, the more fun you have. 

I don't even know how many times I auditioned for Danny Zuko in 'Grease.' 

 Liberace was a miracle. You talk about who he was and what he did, and then you look at who he inspired, from Elton John to Cher to Michael Jackson to Bette Midler. There are so many people that came to see him. Elvis was there, watching his shows.

The longest show I've ever done was four and a half years, so I can only imagine what ending an eight year show is like. 

One of the hardest things to do is to be present and open and clear about who you are and what you stand for. We all have issues with that.

My daughter, when she was younger, was crazy about 'The X-Files,' so I'd watch that with her. 

To be quite honest, I find that it's easier to do parts that are wrapped up in different hair and wardrobe and eras, and different period behavior, than it is to play closer to the present.

On the whole, show business is a hard business in which to be married. 

I think the challenge in hour television or half-hour television is that the more it's around, certainly on commercial television, the less time you have to tell stories these days, because the more commercials they're putting in.

My oldest son started to like 'South Park' and 'Family Guy,' so we'd watch together so I could spend time with him. 

'Certainly Men of a Certain Age' was different for me and allowed people to see me in a different light. Maybe that opened up minds a little bit. 

I've always been a big fan of time travel, and I'm very into the notion that some day we'll be able to do it. Beam me up!

I'm a musical theater guy. That's where I came from. That's where I go whenever I have the chance. It's my first love.

These sci-fi fans are phenomenal in the standards that they hold you to.

After 'Quantum Leap,' a lot of sci-fi things came my way, and I had to say, 'I can't do that right now.'

I like fantasy. I've always been the kind of kid who likes to dream about other things I could be and exotic situations I could be in. 

With any kind of sci-fi, the imagination continues, and the world exists, and you create that in your own mind, and it lives in you. 

The 'NCIS' franchise is beyond successful. 

'Quantum Leap' gave me a huge opportunity as an actor. The nature of the role and it's demands allowed people to perceive me as a versatile actor, and the wide success of the show around the planet gave me a certain notoriety that helped me get other work.

New Orleans has a unique history as a great melting pot of all kinds of cultures, and that manifests itself now through the food, the music, and the kinds of people who live there. 

I've done a lot of work other than sci-fi, and between half-hour comedy, stage, and various movie roles, I've really tried to avoid being typecast. 

I grew up in St. Louis, and I don't know if you've ever been to St. Louis in the middle of summer. There are days in the summer sometimes, weeks in the summer, where the temperature can be over 100 degrees and the humidity can be 100 percent.

I haven't really thought about where to scatter my ashes when the time comes, but I doubt that it would be in space. 

A lot of people don't know that I'm a singer - that's my thing, really.

I've always had an affinity for lawyers. My dad is a lawyer. He's retired now. My brother is a lawyer. It's always been easy, the legalese. 

I was actually cut out of 'L.A. Story'... and rightfully so. 

I'd really like to play bad guys or guys that have something a little bit off about them. And I get to do that periodically.