My father told me, "Don't do anything that would bring shame to the family." I was always mindful of that. When I told him I wanted to pursue a career as an actor, my father said, "Look at what you see on television at the movies, is that what you want to be doing? Do you want to make a life out of that?" And I said, "Daddy, I'm going to change it".

STAR TREK is a show that had a vision about a future that was positive.

You know, I grew up in two American internment camps, and at that time I was very young.

I had a really unusual, remarkably unusual father because he, in our family, was the one that suffered the most. He was the one that explained American democracy to me. He said, ‘Our democracy is a people’s democracy and it can be as great as people can be, and it can be great… but we are also fallible human beings.’

But when we came out of camp, that's when I first realized that being in camp, that being Japanese-American, was something shameful.

I'm a preservationist, I believe in preserving history intact, but I also enjoy the technological advances which have been made.

If leadership requires a fired-up sense of purpose and imagination, it also demands a profound connection to the society to be led.