As time went on, I did campaign to lighten the character a little bit, to introduce some romance into the episodes, outside activities, horse riding and fencing and mountaineering.

Violence against women is the single greatest human rights violation of our generation.

I always have been optimistic about humanity's future. Always. Even at the most dismaying of times.

The people who could do most to improve the situation of so many women and children are in fact, men.

I began directing episodes, which was a great light every couple of months. We never short-changed our audience, but it became something that you had to work at rather than something that was a pleasure.

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.

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.