Top 121 William Shatner Quotes

All I know is that I am constantly intrigued by something I’m doing.

I think the acting satisfies the need and desire for approval.

Energy is the key to creativity. Energy is the key to life.

When I’m interviewing somebody I don’t work from prepared questions.

Getting that audience approval is always a question mark, and it’s always that flag that flutters in front of you.

I’m surfing the giant life wave.

In entertainment, whether it’s movies or television or whatever, I’m a great audience, but I don’t remember the names of the people I’ve seen or the groups that I’ve heard.

If you read my books, especially the Star Trek books and the Quest for Tomorrow books, you’ll see in them the core theme of the basic humanistic questions that Star Trek asked.

I spent years doing ‘Star Trek’ bits and things, and a lot of people loved it, a lot of people mocked it.

I watch movies and sports. I can count on the fingers of my hand the number of times I have watched an hour show. I never watch a half-hour show, and I never watch myself.

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

Captain Kirk has been a source of pleasure and income for a long time.

I was built for the long run, not for the short dash, I guess.

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

So many dot-com companies were formulated on air.

I’ve been approached to do some things with astronauts and the preparation that astronauts go through.

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.

All in all, Kirk’s character is something I am very proud of.

Yeah, I do stand-up, my own type of stand-up.

Exercise? A Jew doesn’t exercise.

Well-written words are music.

Here’s something pompous – you take your day and artistically create it, so every moment has an artistic flavor.

All any artist can do is please themselves.

It’s very easy to say no to leaving the house.

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

I love living in Los Angeles.

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

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

Everybody has their 15 minutes, and those 15 minutes should be spent in a private limo and a private plane. It’s the ultimate.

I see myself as an actor with a love of music.

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.

If saving money is wrong, I don’t want to be right!

If someone criticizes my acting, they may be right.

Voice acting is very interesting, I’ve done several animated projects, and you have to make the voice reflect the character and try and do as much with a word as you can with a look in a live-action film.

I’m not technically adept at music, but I’d love to be part of a discussion of where progressive rock ends and country music begins.

I enjoyed reading all the classic authors like Isaac Asimov and Bradbury.

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

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

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.

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.

How do I stay so healthy and boyishly handsome? It’s simple. I drink the blood of young runaways.

I don’t watch television.

I love technology.

Tabloid stuff just offends.

My site has the whole thing – blogs, information, video interviews.

My mother was an exuberant, silly lady.

The only subject I know anything about is myself and I don’t know that too clearly.

Marriage is a reflection of your life in general: how you treat people, how you argue, how secure you are in your own thoughts. How vehemently do you argue your point of view? With what disdain do you view the other’s point of view?

If I’m given an opportunity to do something, I do it. Or else I fool around with it.

I frequently dream of being on these horses’ backs and running across a field. And the horse and I are one.

I don’t know how I got to this point but it must be as a result of everything that has come before so if I were to change something, I might not be at this point now.

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

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

You have to create your life. You have to carve it, like a sculpture.

I don’t read reviews.

You know, the process of making a documentary is one of discovery, and like writing a story, you follow a lead and that leads you to something else and then by the time you finish, the story is nothing like you expected.

The actor is in the hands of a lot of other people, over which he has no control.

I’ve blundered my way through life.

I don’t think of myself as being tied.

Nobody could have imagined the phenomenon that ‘Star Trek’ became. It’s still almost impossible to imagine.

I find age such a foreign concept. I have to be reminded. I still have the extraordinary feeling of adventure, striking out into unknown fields.

I believe in taking what happens as inevitable.

I was always working. Maybe you weren’t aware of the movies I was making, or the television I was doing, or the shows I was creating, or the books I was writing; there have been thirty. But I have always been solidly at work, running as fast as I can.

I am private.

My plan has always been to return to Broadway every 50 years.

Every piece of entertainment is made with the idea that ‘This is going to be terrific’ and ‘This is the best thing I’ve ever done’ and then it hits the public and then the public tells you whether it’s good or bad.

The conundrum of free will and destiny has always kept me dangling.

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’m anxious to make another film.

I’ve been in that angst of loneliness, where you’re really alone in the universe, except for the dog.

I can’t type. Can’t do it.

The good life is one that’s artistically made.

Montreal is a very cosmopolitan, sophisticated, erudite, educated, glorious city today. But it wasn’t quite that way when I was growing up there. There was a lot of anti-Semitism. And I had to deal with that in an area of the city that had very few Jews.

Fate gives you the finger and you accept.

We live in grief for having left the womb, for having left the teat, then school, then home. In my case, it was leaving marriages, and the death of my wife.

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

Spencer Tracy was a man who did very much what I do on a set, and that is, he comes down and he does his job, and then he goes back to his dressing room.

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

I didn’t realize that, in doing a documentary, there is this process of discovery. It’s not like a film or a play with a set script. It sort of reveals itself.

I’m just quizzical about how things work and why things are.

But if you want to know the truth, the weirdest thing that has happened has been my discovery that people who attend the conventions are filled with love.

I’m looking for the perfect paintball movie.

My understanding is, the fans are so ravenous in Canada, they gnaw on the stars.

There’s a joy and a pain about directing where the dreams you have are becoming concrete but the attention to detail, the need for time is such that it’s overwhelming at times, and the stream of responsibility.

I’m an optimist.

A series is filled with compromises.

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

What is down will go up. At the same time, you have to be prepared for what is up to go down.

I had been in a Shakespeare company for three years and done a lot of Shakespeare. That was fun. That was interesting.

The longer I go about living, I see it’s the relationship that is most meaningful.

The great mystery of our consciousness is beyond our grasp.

Regret is the worst human emotion. If you took another road, you might have fallen off a cliff. I’m content.