Quotes by George Takei

“You know, its not really coming out, ... Its more like a long, long walk through what began as a narrow corridor that starts to widen.”

“The large popular normality is that rigid, constrained normality, ... But theres another natural normality. And you come to realize, This is who I am. And by gum, Im not going to let it be a constraint!”

“They didnt want those people coming into Hancock Park, low-income people. The Hancock Park people clearly were making their opposition known to Henry Waxman.”

“I didnt want to talk about being in an internment camp, ... They would ask me, where was I? I would say I was far away...But I never went into details.”

“All that was required for it to become law was the autograph of one actor.”

“We are going to make a stronger, better, truer democracy....We will boldly go where America has never gone before.”

“Vierzig Jahre später erkennen wir, dass diese Utensilien auf unserem Schreibtisch daheim und bei der Arbeit wieder. In der Serie trugen wir ein fantastische Gerät, dass wir benutzen, wenn wir mit jemandem sprechen wollten. Dieses Gerät ist heute sehr realistisch und sher nervenraubend”

“Thats right. These are the suitcases that immigrants brought with them, ... Star Trek.”

“We are part of the fabric of America, from U.S. senators to your schoolteacher to your local banker.”

“We were taken to Arkansas in trains like this.”

My father once told me that American democracy is a people’s democracy at heart, and that it therefore can be as great as the American people, or as fallible. It depends on all of us. But our system is more fragile than we know. To sustain it, we must always cherish the ideals on which it was founded, remain vigilant against the dark forces that threaten it, and actively engage in the process of making it work.

Pioneering is never done in front of cheerleaders urging on a roaring grandstand of popular approval.

We have to remember that Putin was a member of the KGB. He has already demonstrated that kind of macho, dictatorial attitude. Russia has breached their pledge to uphold the Olympic charter. This is a great opportunity for the IOC to say we cannot, given the situation that exists currently, allow the Olympics to take place in Russia.

Humor is a powerful tool, and some of these politicians are so far out and easy to lampoon. They just provide such delicious opportunity.

I do find things funny. When you see life through the eyes of someone with a good sense of humor, which my grandmother did, life is a human comedy.

When I was a very young actor, I cruised around in a pretty cool vehicle called the Starship Enterprise.

One of the gifts of Star Trek is my professional work colleagues have become my lifelong friends.

Gene Roddenberry continually reminded us that the Star Trek Enterprise was a metaphor for starship Earth. And the strength in this starship came from its diversity, coming together and working in concert as a team. That is the strength of our countries, Canada and the United States. We are nations of diversity.

Star Trek is about acceptance, and the strength of the Starship Enterprise is that it embraces diversity in all its forms.

As my audience grew more diverse, I started interjecting social justice advocacy and commentaries about LGBT equality, and it just kept growing more.