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" 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. "

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" My father told me about American democracy. And he said you have to be actively engaged in the political process to make our democracy work. So I've been doing that my entire life. Civil rights movement. The peace movement during the Vietnam conflict. The movement to get an apology and redress for Japanese-Americans. "

George Takei

Peace

Work

Life

" 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. "

" 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. "

George Takei

Team

Strength

" 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. "

" 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. "

" To characterize all Muslims as terrorists is fear-mongering of the worst kind. "

" They didn't incarcerate the Japanese-Americans in Hawaii. That's the place that was bombed. But the Japanese-American population was about 45 percent of the island of Hawaii. And if they extracted those Japanese-Americans, the economy would have collapsed. But on the mainland, we were thinly spread out up and down the West Coast. "

" 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. "

" I remembered some people who lived across the street from our home as we were being taken away. When I was a teenager, I had many after-dinner conversations with my father about our internment. He told me that after we were taken away, they came to our house and took everything. We were literally stripped clean. "

George Takei

House

People

" 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. "

" I'm most comfortable with my computer. Yes, I have an iPhone, but I've reached that point now where to read e-mails on my phone, I need my reading glasses. I'm most comfortable with the big-screen computer. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" The arc of our history is toward more equality being expanded to more and more people. "

" My grandmother lived to 104 years old, and part of her success was she woke up every morning to a brand new day. She said every morning is a new gift. Her favorite hobby was collecting birthdays. "

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

George Takei

Life

Gay

" 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. "

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

George Takei

Attack

Own

" There's no point living at my age with many ingrained great fears. "

" 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. "

" I'm an actor. I love acting and being able to use my love, my passion, to also contribute to making this a better society, a better democracy, and a better country. "

" STAR TREK is a show that had a vision about a future that was positive. "

" 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

My Life

People

" I intend to live life, not just exist. "

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

" 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

War

Father

" It's difficult working with someone who is not a team player. "

" Gene Roddenbury felt that television was being wasted. That it had the potential for enlightenment and even inspiration. "

" 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. "