I'm not trying to be coy or manipulative or Machiavellian, I want to spark people's imaginations.

I am lucky, I'm the first to admit that.

I quickly said that, because of my loyalty to 'Star Trek' and also just being a fan, I wouldn’t even want to be involved in the next version of those things. I declined any involvement very early on. I’d rather be in the audience not knowing what was coming, rather than being involved in the minutiae of making them.

'Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope' (1977) is probably the most influential film of my generation. That work was the personification of good and evil and the way it opened up the world to space adventure, the way westerns had to our parents' generations, it left an indelible imprint. So, in a way, everything that any of us does is somehow directly or indirectly affected by the experience of seeing those first three films.

I don't want to do something that is so inside that only die-hard fans will appreciate.

I find that it's hard to fully examine one's life and not have faith be part of the discussion.

I was never really a comic-book fanatic.