I never gave my career much strategic thought. Maybe I should have.

Once you decide that you're going to have the death of Spock, then how does that affect the other people? Why is it there? I got a lot of stick from a lot of people from the very beginning about the idea of killing Spock. Somebody said, "You can't kill him." And I said, "Sure you can; the only question is whether you do it well."

I'm mainly interested in people trying to figure s#!t out.

No rock and roll ensemble, however inspired, can deliver the kind of musical variety obtainable with the resources of 110 instruments.

Having done, you know, science fiction, I didn't want to get trapped in science fiction. So my eclecticism was my only conscious choice. I didn't want to find myself in a niche that I couldn't get out of.

In fact, we've entered a world which is arguably much more dangerous than [being] eyeball to eyeball with the USSR.

Leo Tolstoy said the purpose of art is to teach you to love life. And that's what I want.