Shatner The Quotable

Some of the interesting stuff William Shatner had to say during his interview with The Associated Press:

On a recent "Boston Legal" scene that focused on Denny Crane's friendship with Alan Shore:

"An actor can do one of two things. You can face out front, listen and be listening and in your own thoughts. ... Or you can be fixated on the person _ listening, watching. That throws the ball on the person talking. If you're focused on them, then the audience is focused on them. I chose to listen locked on what he was saying, and when he said to me, `Can I tell you what I love about you?' I chose to be very emotional and said, `Tell me' as though I were in love with him. And as I was doing this, I recognized the possibility of people mistaking that for homosexual love, as against somebody interested in the generic word love and not carrying an idea of sexuality."

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On Shatner's relationship with Priceline.com:

"The evolution of the marketing campaign to this moment now _ this character, the Negotiator, now no longer is Shatner playing a guitar and singing a song and therefore you say, `Isn't he funny' or `Isn't that terrible.' You say, `That's this figure from Priceline who's our ombudsman. He's trying to get us a better price.' And I'm losing the identity of Shatner and becoming the frontispiece for the company."

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On the original "Star Trek" series:

"The actors were wonderful. And I didn't care about the sets or anything like that or the cheesy spaceship. ... I think that's what happens in `Star Trek.' Your eye goes past all the faults because you're concentrated on the actors and the plot."

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On acting:

"I'm trying to fill the cracks in the bricks that have been written. I'm the mortar. We're all alive, the four of us at this table, if you were to film us, you would see our faces just in conversation are filled. They are shifting and changing with our inner emotions, and we're not even talking about emotional things. That's what the actor should be doing."

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On the William and Elizabeth Shatner Therapeutic Riding Program, which puts Israeli and Arab children together in an equestrian setting:

"One of the conditions for them to get our money is that the riding center must be open to kids from all nations. And in some small way, half a dozen kids will see that the other people don't have horns, that they are not demons."