Encouraging people to believe in it was the most important thing of all. It's one of the reasons I was always uncomfortable whenever film crews came on the set to shoot things. I didn't want our make-believe to be exposed.

I certainly wanted to maintain some sense of mystery about Picard and that's why we never allowed certain situations to fully evolve, like the relationship between Picard and Beverly Crusher.

I think I came back from America a funnier and nicer person than I went.

Creating a believable world on the ship was very important, and technically they got better and better and better at showing the ship too.

I wouldn't know a space-time continuum or warp core breach if they got into bed with me.

It still frightens me a little bit to think that so much of my life was totally devoted to Star Trek and almost nothing else.

One of the things that I've come to understand is that as I talk a lot about Picard, what I find is that I'm talking about myself.