William Shatner Quotes

In my proudest moments, I think I had a real hand in the creative force of making 'Star Trek.' But most of the time, I don't think about it.

I believe in taking what happens as inevitable.

People have an affinity towards things, and you don't know where it comes from. Mozart wrote a symphony when he was four, so it's said; the theory is maybe because his father was a conductor, it happened in vitro, and he heard the music before he was born, and by the age of four he knew how to write music.

The great mystery of our consciousness is beyond our grasp.

I'm not out to convince anybody of anything.

Divorce is simply modern society's version of medieval torture. Except it lasts longer and leaves deeper scars. A divorce releases the most primitive emotions; the ugliest, raw feelings. Emotionally wounded people do their best to inflict pain upon the other party, but rather than using claws they use divorce lawyers.

A sense of the unknown has always lured mankind and the greatest of the unknowns of today is outer space. The terrors, the joys and the sense of accomplishment are epitomized in the space program.

The basic quality that any great story must have is a story that illustrates the human condition.

My name is William Shatner, and I am Canadian!

There were many times when I kept silent about being Jewish as I got older, when Jewish jokes were told.

I've got rock 'n' roll in my blood.

Writing is truly a creative art - putting word to a blank piece of paper and ending up with a full-fledged story rife with character and plot.

Although I'm a business major out of McGill University, I know nothing... but then I found out much later in life, nobody knows anything.

I sometimes find that in interviews you learn more about yourself than the person learned about you.

There's too many people in the world.

Don't be afraid of making an ass of yourself. I do it all the time and look what I got.

My life is my statement and I try to be true to myself and thusly to other people. Whatever my failings are, they are human and I try to perfect it each day.

A stage actor has to be 10% aware of the audience as he's performing.

Oh, for God's sake... get a life, will you?

And I enjoyed the celebrity and the creativity that was involved in Star Trek.

A tree you pass by every day is just a tree. If you are to closely examine what a tree has and the life a tree has, even the smallest thing can withstand a curiosity, and you can examine whole worlds.

You and I and everybody in show business and the entertainment industry fly by the seat of our pants. We don't know quite what is going to happen.

I believe that when things happen, they happen with a purpose.

I didn't want to do the sitcom thing, but I didn't know what else to do.

I'm a performer, comedian, entertainer, writer and director.

Ads need to be little pieces of entertainment.

There was nothing lonelier than a man with a million friends.

I'm anxious to make another film.

It was the early 1970s and I was recently divorced. I had three kids and was totally broke. I managed to find work back east on the straw-hat circuit - summer stock - but couldn't afford hotels, so I lived out of the back of my truck, under a hard shell.

Pain and guilt can't be taken away with the wave of a magic wand. They're the things we carry with us, the things that make us who we are. If we lose them, we lose ourselves. I don't want my pain taken away! I need my pain!

I see people putting text messages on the phone or computer and I think, 'Why don't you just call?'

I have been accused of never saying no.

Careers are here and they're gone. No matter how great we think we are, we're nothing but the temples of Ozymandias-we're ruins in the making.

There's an ecstasy about doing something really good on film: the composition of a shot, the drama within the shot, the texture... It's palpable.

Sci-fi films are the epic films of the day because we can no longer put 10,000 extras in the scene - but we can draw thousands of aliens with computers.

I think the supernatural is a catch-all for everything we don't understand about the vast other parts of life that we cannot perceive.

I also derive a great deal of pleasure from horses and dogs... the ocean... and love.

If we can clean up our world, I'll bet you we can achieve warp drive.

The good life is one that's artistically made.

No, I don't regret anything at this point. That may change on the next phone call, but at the moment I don't regret anything.

The name Shatner is Austrian and partly Germanic, and there's Germanic reticence and silence perhaps, but there is passion underneath.

I think of doing a series as very hard work. But then I've talked to coal miners, and that's really hard work.

What does God need with a starship?

I'm surfing the giant life wave.

These people who come to Comic-Con and dress up - all across the country, the rest of the population who doesn't understand are scoffing at them.

I'm interested in man's march into the unknown but to vomit in space is not my idea of a good time. Neither is a fiery crash with the vomit hovering over me.

My mother was an exuberant, silly lady.

Writing an acceptance speech gives you the expectation of winning, and you are therefore devastated or hurt if you didn't win.