Brent Spiner Quotes

A job is a job. And I like to work.

[Voice acting] is such an easy job. It's like stealing money, really. Which I'm always happy to do.

[Out To Sea] was like a dream come true for me, because I got to work with Jack [Lemmon] and Walter [Matthau], who were unbelievable.

I tended to do a lot of shows that were ahead of their time and didn't run very long.

I wanted to look right. I remember a review - a very positive one - in The New York Times that said I was so good in the role [Earl Mills] that I "even managed to overcome a terrible red wig." I wanted to write her and tell her about the agony I'd gone through with the perm, but I thought better of it.

So it was a really pleasant surprise when [Independence Day] turned out to be a successful film. I don't know if you've heard that they're going to be re-releasing it next Fourth of July in 3-D. I've actually only seen it once, and it was in Hawaii, in a little theater in Oahu shortly after it was released. But Roland Emmerich is a really smart guy, and he makes really fun movies to watch.

I didn't really watch the show [Star Trek]. I still haven't seen about 150 of them. So I didn't really think of them too much in terms of episodes. I thought of them as kind of one long seven-year episode.

I think Rick Berman just called me and asked me if I wanted to do the show [Star Trek: Enterprise], and he said they'd write an arc if I'd do it.

I don't know you could do a whole film about Dr. Okun from Independence Day.

Any job you can go to and have a laugh everyday has got to be a good job.

I had a really nice time on [Alphas]. It was a bunch of really good actors, and I was particularly thrilled to be working with David Strathairn.

It's fun to do something different. And there are things you can do in a small palate that you can't necessarily do in a larger role. You can go a little further and do things you could never pull off for any length of time, but you can do for the short run.

I try to do as much as I can. I probably knew more about Earl Mills than anybody on earth besides people who actually knew him.

It seemed like an interesting movie [Independence Day], and I thought I had a take on the part that was going to be unique. That doesn't happen to me very often.

Timing is everything, as you know.

I got to play a funny part [in the The Master Of Disguise]. There was one thing my character did that involved flatulence and laughing at the same time - that was in the script - and that was basically what sold me on it. I really thought, "This can't help but be funny." And when I saw the film, I was proud that I'd had those moments.

[Fan In Lobby from Stardust Memories] that was just after The Dain Curse. My other big uncredited role from back then.

Both of the Quaid brothers, Randy and Dennis, were in my class, and Tommy Schlamme, who produced and directed The West Wing with Aaron Sorkin, among many others. Marianne Williamson, who did A Course In Miracles, she was in my high-school drama class, too. So it was kind of an amazing class.

[Out To Sea] began a relationship I had with [director] Martha Coolidge for a few years that was wonderful, and she certainly cast me in the best roles I've ever had in film.

You look at that movie [Dude, Where's My Car?] now, and you know exactly when it was made. And that's what kids were like then.

I know a guy who writes on the show, it was his episode, and he called and said, "Would you do it?" And I said, "Yeah." There's not really much else to tell, except that I was thrilled to be on The Simpsons, because it's one of the greatest series in the history of television.

It was kind of an amazing class. I went to the Strasberg Institute in New York for a little while after I got there, and I've never seen anybody who was in any of my classes there ever again. I mean, that's not to say they didn't become somebody. I'm not sure. I mean, Sam Jackson could've been in my class, for all I remember.

I try not to make plans. Because, even the best laid plans etc. etc.

John Logan pretty much does the Woody Allen thing of just bringing people in and meeting them.

Generally, I have to be able to get the lines out of my mouth without making a mistake before I go to sleep.

I think we're all fans, and I understand the whole world of fandom, because I am a fan.

Of course, when you see [ musical numbers] in the movie [Out To Sea ], it's cut into a lot with other scenes, but we shot the number straight through, so here I am doing it, and sitting right in front of me in the audience was Donald O'Connor. And I was, like, "Oh, my God, I can't believe I'm performing a musical number in front of Donald O'Connor," who's one of the greats of the silver screen. But it was a thrilling experience, it really was.

I actually had some funny dialogue [ in Stardust Memories], a little piece, and we shot all day in this big ballroom. Gordon Willis was the director of photography, and at the end of the day, Gordon turned to Woody Allen and said, "We cannot accomplish all of this in this space. It's impossible." And we'd been rehearsing and trying to shoot this thing all day. So Woody said, "Okay, let's do something else." He looked at me and said, "Come back tomorrow, I'll put you in something else." And he did.

[ Felicia Day] is really figured it all out, and it was impressive. It was nothing like our set, because her set was like working on a real film.

I really enjoyed doing that [Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2004) - "Graham Barnes"]. I got to work with Margaret Colin, who was a blast to work with, and a wonderful actress, and Taylor Roberts. She was fantastic. And getting to work with Vincent D'Onofrio, who's amazing. But I loved the characters of the parents, these sick psychiatrists.

Rick Berman, who produced Star Trek, was a big Night Court fan. So he knew who I was as soon as I walked in.

I really enjoyed Eddie Bracken. He told me a great story. He did The Odd Couple on Broadway, replacing Art Carney, and he said, "Art Carney did it for six months and I did it for three years, and I don't think anyone I've ever spoken to saw me. They all saw Art Carney."

I've gotten such good feedback from that [re-team with Wil Wheaton for Big Bang Theory appearance], and I hardly did anything.

We got to be really good friends [Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau]. It was just thrilling, every day. Every single day. I had a big couple of musical numbers in [Out to Sea], and I remember doing one of them and shooting it from beginning to end.

It was a fabulous experience shooting [in the Aviator], working with Leo [DiCaprio] and Danny Huston in the scene. It was great. I think what was most eye-opening about it was that [Martin] Scorsese was just like any good director you work with.

One of the things about working on Star Trek that was always so great was that we all got along as well as we did. We really became family.

In my heart, I've never left Brazil.

People think that being on Star Trek is career suicide, but it's really just the opposite

I was, like, "Wow, is this ever going to happen again? Am I ever going to work with another bunch of people I get along with this well?" And then, sure enough, Threshold was just a great bunch of people, and I thought, "Hey, I could hang with these people for a long time!" But, unfortunately, it was 13 episodes and we were out of there.

They were nicely written and nicely directed episodes [Star Trek: Enterprise]. I enjoyed working with Scott [Bakula]. So it was good to do, and, as you said, it did serve to enhance the Soong legacy.

I don't know if the character's come back and it was someone else playing it, or maybe they never did it again. But I loved it. It was a great part [The Joker] to play.

When I go to the old folks' home, I'm gonna be sitting in a rocking chair, telling everybody how I worked with Jack [Lemmon] and Walter [Matthau].

Having spent so much time in a fictional world, I prefer to read about the real world

If you look around at the people in show business today they are basically the people who didn't give up.

I think there is something like 90% unemployment in the Screen Actors Guild, so we are the exception.

There is no question that everybody who works in show business is lucky because of the number of people who wish they where working in show business.

Joey being one of my finest performances ever. Matt LeBlanc's basically doing the same thing right now, playing himself on Episodes. When I did Joey, I really leaned on them to make me the biggest ass they possibly could, because, frankly, everyone in their heart of hearts thinks of themselves that way. Or at least I do, anyway.

A couple of years ago, I went to see a production of Wicked in San Francisco with a friend of mine, one that Patty Duke was in, and he said, "Do you want to meet her?" And I said, "Yeah!" And I went backstage, and she walked out of her dressing room, looked at me, and said, "I know you." And I went, "Well, uh, yeah, I was in My Sweet Charlie." And she said, "Yeah! You were the guy in the car on the road!" And I was. It was amazing.