George Takei Quotes & Sayings

I've sometimes imagined that if sin had a flavor, it might very well be bacon. It even tastes smoky, as if it emerged piping hot out of the fiery pans of hell — George Takei

It has long been a dream of mine that this important story one day would be told on the great American stage of Broadway. In fact, I've dedicated much of the latter half of my life to ensuring the story of the internment is known. — George Takei

People are interested not just in Sulu, but George Takei - and he's gay. Life is full of twist and turns. — George Takei

Then that did very well at the box office, so before you knew it, we were in a string of feature motion pictures. Then they announced that they were going to do some spinoffs of us. — George Takei

You know, when a man is raped you never hear about what he was wearing. — George Takei

STAR TREK is a show that had a vision about a future that was positive. — George Takei

I marched back then - I was in a civil-rights musical, Fly Blackbird, and we met Martin Luther King. — George Takei

Cat's are unpredictable. It is a fine line between the cure, inquisitive and innocent creature resting on our lap and the hissing, spitting and deranged banshee it might become at any moment. This is why we're trying always to win their love. — George Takei

I do think that Japan will be one of the nations that have equality, and that, too, will serve as an example for other Asian nations. — George Takei

Our democracy is dependent on people who passionately cherish the ideals of a democracy. Every man is created equal with an inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It's a wonderful idea, and it takes people who cherish that idea to be actively involved in the process. — George Takei

This political climate today reminds me of what my father must have gone through in 1942, when the winds of war and fires of hate were surrounding him. We have a candidate for the presidency of the United States, Donald Trump, using the same rhetoric that my father must have heard from elected officials. — George Takei

Radio dramas have disappeared. What we do have now is books on tape, which I find wonderful. I've done some of those. Otherwise, radio acting is now gone. — George Takei

People want to start their day off with a smile or, better yet, a guffaw. — George Takei

We should indeed keep calm in the face of difference, and live our lives in a state of inclusion and wonder at the diversity of humanity. — George Takei

When I was a teenager, the biggest heartthrob was Tab Hunter. He was in every movie out of Warner Bros. until he was exposed as gay, and his career faded. That was an object lesson. I knew I must protect my sexual orientation. — George Takei

ISIS itself regularly fuels hatred of gay people and violence towards them. It broadcasts gruesome executions of homosexuals thrown blindfolded from rooftops. — George Takei

We will face a day, not long from now, when all of our information comes from digital sources, meaning that rumors and untruths can spread even more quickly than before. — George Takei

It's difficult working with someone who is not a team player. — George Takei

Up until the time I was cast in 'Star Trek,' the roles were pretty shallow - thin, stereotyped, one-dimensional roles. I knew this character was a breakthrough role, certainly for me as an individual actor but also for the image of an Asian character: no accent, a member of the elite leadership team. — George Takei

If you have to make laws to hurt a group of people just to prove your morals and faith, then you have no true morals or faith to prove. — George Takei

I discovered that funny animal pictures - memes - would get a lot of likes and shares. — George Takei

This is supposed to be a participatory democracy and if we're not in there participating then the people that will manipulate and exploit the system will step in there. — George Takei

As the old saying goes, I was simply looking for fan love, in Alderaan places. — George Takei

To characterize all Muslims as terrorists is fear-mongering of the worst kind. — George Takei

Young people today, for example, often watch live television (if they watch it live at all) with both the TV and their laptops or tablet devices on. — George Takei

Plays close, movies wrap and TV series eventually get cancelled, and we were cancelled in three season. — George Takei

Social media affords me an opportunity to interact with fans on a daily basis, not just for a few seconds apiece at a science-fiction convention. — George Takei

Life is too short not to order the bacon dessert. — George Takei

I'm a chairman on the Board of Governors for the East-West Players, the longest-running Asian-American theater company in America. — George Takei

They're the best critics. Workshops are good, and drama teachers are fine, but the best is the audience. And even better if they're paying! — George Takei

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

I'm particularly impressed by the creation of the character of Spock, which really was Leonard Nimoy's singular creation. He used everything he had. — George Takei

I was four years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941 by Japan, and overnight, the world was plunged into a world war. America suddenly was swept up by hysteria. — George Takei

At the core of 'Star Trek' is Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future. So much of science-fiction is about a dystopian society with human civilization having crumbled. He had an affirmative, shining, positive view of the future. — George Takei

Your Egnlish is so atrocious I don't feel the need to even respond' seems but a long-winded way of saying, 'Home-schooled dumbass. — George Takei

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

The best way to get people to connect with an issue is to humanize it. You can do so much more powerfully with music and touch the heart. — George Takei

Unfriending me when I didn't even know we were friends? It's like breaking wind when you're home alone. If I can't smell you, knock yourself out. — George Takei

I may not have trekked through the galaxies in reality. But I have trekked all over this planet: Australia, Asia, Latin America, Europe. — George Takei

When billionaires can give $50 million, $500 million to a campaign, and there's no limit, then it makes a mockery of 'one man, one vote.' — George Takei

And it seems to me important for a country, for a nation to certainly know about its glorious achievements but also to know where its ideals failed, in order to keep that from happening again. — George Takei

The wonderful thing about acting is they're always going to need old codgers! — George Takei

Every time we had a hot war going on in Asia, it was difficult for Asian Americans here. — George Takei

What's needed today, now, more than ever, is 'Star Peace' for there is an ominous, mutual threat to all science fiction. It's called 'Twilight'. And it is really, really bad, — George Takei

As you know, when Star Trek was canceled after the second season, it was the activism of the fans that revived it for a third season. — George Takei

I'm an anglophile. I visit England regularly, sometimes three or four times a year, at least once a year. — George Takei

More importantly, the tweet was funny. Come on, it's funny. — George Takei

Happily, the days when overt racial discrimination and segregation were championed by social conservatives are long past. — George Takei

We were American citizens. We were incarcerated by our American government in American internment camps here in the United States. The term 'Japanese internment camp' is both grammatically and factually incorrect. — George Takei

Nothing is what it seems on the surface of Heroes. — George Takei

I was blessed with my career. I passionately love acting. And it's given me a good livelihood. — George Takei

I appreciate failure. Failure means that an attempt was made, and a lesson can be learned. As long as we're alive after the effort, there is a chance for success the next time around. — George Takei

Would-be terrorists cannot so much as board a plane without a thorough screening, yet we give them nearly unfettered access to very dangerous weapons. — George Takei

It will be written on my tombstone in very large letters, 'Here lies Hikaru Sulu,' and in very tiny letters, 'aka George Takei.' I don't protest the inevitable. — George Takei

Facebook itself has an interest in having great content so that its users keep coming back. — George Takei

The real challenge in acting is in comedy. It's easier to get that gasp in a drama. Not easy, because you still have to find that emotional pitch. And when you do something in drama and you hear that sob from the audience it's so fulfilling. But as a comic actor, when the laugh is supposed to come and you punch in that line and nothing happens it is dreadful. It's horrific and you feel like dying right there. — George Takei

The world has changed from when I was a young teen feeling ashamed for being gay. The issue of gay marriage is now a political issue. That would have been unthinkable when I was young. — George Takei

I think Donald Trump's interpretation of marriage is something that he himself doesn't really believe in. 'Traditional marriage' is where two people love each other, commit to each other, care for each other over the years. It is a meaningful ceremony, and his interpretation of that is not recognizing what real marriage is. — George Takei

I spent my boyhood behind the barbed wire fences of American internment camps and that part of my life is something that I wanted to share with more people. — George Takei

The irony of this endeavor is palpable, for English itself is a hopeless hodgepodge of other tongues, with more exceptions than rules, more chaos than order, and enough new words created each day to keep the Oxford English Dictionary folks very, very busy. — George Takei

I love being an actor. — George Takei

We need to get some rationality on the Second Amendment. This is crazy what we allow ourselves. — George Takei

There is more story in a minor character like Boba Fett than there is in all the clutter of various vampires in the Twilight franchise. — George Takei

They claim they did all this because they love me, but I must say, I've never been loved in such a bizarre fashion. — George Takei

Arguments that we will never stop all shootings by restricting access to such weapons fails to account for our strong and common desire at least to stop many of them - or any of them. — George Takei

My memories of camp - I was four years old to eight years old - they're fond memories. — George Takei

By seeing a same-sex couple in ordinary situations, that it might make people think twice about if they have, you know, questions about acceptance of LGBT equality, it's one way to just say that, you know, 'We're members of your family and gay people are like anybody else.' — George Takei

When Brad and I got married in 2008, it got a lot of attention. And all the attention was over the fact that we were two men, but people were hardly conscious of the fact that we were entering into an interracial marriage. That's wonderful, because it was only 50 years ago with Loving v. Virginia that interracial marriages were made legal. — George Takei

It'd be nice to be what they call a Renaissance man. — George Takei

Cats, on the other hand, are similar to Vulcans - dispassionate, contemplative and pointy-eared. — George Takei

I'm a civic busybody and I've been blessed with an active career. — George Takei

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. — George Takei

I've learned that when you get to be a certain age, you can get away with saying a lot of things, some of which wouldn't even be remotely funny if someone forty years younger said them. The Golden Girls ran for years off the same theory and basically used the same four jokes for seven marvelous seasons. — George Takei

I myself am a Buddhist, not a Christian. But I cannot help but think that if Christ ran a public establishment, it would be open to all, and He would be the last to refuse service to anyone. It is, simply put, the most un-Christian of notions. — George Takei

Dramatic shows are the ones that I am attracted to. — George Takei

Cultural icons stand the test of time because they speak to our deeper convictions and ignite our dreams. — George Takei

We can't let the past be forgotten. — George Takei

'Star Trek' fans totally accepted my sexual orientation. There are a great number of LGBT people across 'Star Trek' fandom. The show always appealed to people that were different - the geeks and the nerds, and the people who felt they were not quite a part of society, sometimes because they may have been gay or lesbian. — George Takei

A man who layeth with another man must be stoned. — George Takei

I'd like to think that, when I explain it, that Mr. Trump will understand marriage is defined by two people who love each other, commit to each other, and will care for each other through thick and thin. — George Takei

I've been an activist since my late teens. I take this very seriously and try to use the gift that's been given to me - access to the media - as positively as I can. — George Takei

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

If leadership requires a fired-up sense of purpose and imagination, it also demands a profound connection to the society to be led. Like it or not, this is our culture, and we should embrace and celebrate it, even while we strive to refine and shape it. — George Takei

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. — George Takei

It kills me to hear Donald Trump talking. — George Takei

You know what the lowest rated episode we ever had was? Where Captain Kirk kissed Uhuru - a white man kissing an African-American woman. All the stations in the American South - in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana - refused to air it. And so our ratings plummeted. — George Takei

When Pearl Harbor was bombed, young Japanese-Americans, like all young Americans, rushed to their draft board to volunteer to fight for our country. That act of patriotism was answered with a slap in the face. We were denied service and categorized as enemy non-alien. — George Takei

I thought this convention phenomenon was very flattering, but that's about the extent of it. — George Takei

Following the Orlando attack, ISIS claimed the attacker as one of its own and called for even more such killings worldwide. — George Takei

'Star Trek' is science fiction. 'Star Wars' is science fantasy. Based on the episodes I worked on, I think with 'Star Wars: Clone Wars,' we're starting to see a merging, though. It does deal, philosophically, with some of the issues of the time, which is always something 'Star Trek' was known for. — George Takei

Yes, I remember the barbed wire and the guard towers and the machine guns, but they became part of my normal landscape. What would be abnormal in normal times became my normality in camp. — George Takei

If we must withhold all ribbing in the name of protecting everyone's feelings, then we truly are a toothless society. We will reach what I call the lowest common denominator of butthurt. — George Takei

The only thing worse than human ignorance is human pride in that ignorance. — George Takei

We are living in a science fiction world. — George Takei

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

It's safe to assume none of us actually wants to see ISIS-inspired terrorists armed with semi-automatic rifles, able to attack at will within our own borders. — George Takei

I don't consider it jumping ship. The 'Star Trek' philosophy is to embrace the diversity of the universe, and 'Star Wars' is part of that diversity. I also think 'Star Trek' and 'Star Wars' are related beyond both having the word 'Star.' — George Takei

Our democracy is a people's democracy, and it can be as great as people can be, but it is also as fallible as people are. — George Takei

If you don't know who Eleanor Rigby is, you probably were born after 1985 and need to listen to some real music. — George Takei

Even before I could vote, I was involved in the political arena. My father was an admirer of Adlai Stevenson, and he took me to the Stevenson for President headquarters, and he volunteered me. That was my introduction to electoral politics, which was exciting and fun and thrilling and very theatrical. — George Takei