Quotes from Robert Picardo

I like some science in my science fiction.

When an actor gets a role, especially in series television where he really is the part, the audience never thinks of another actor playing that role. If they accept you in the role, then they can't separate the actor from the character.

So many articles said, ''China Beach' is uncancellable,' but when they dragged it on, I started to have doubts.

I have played some wonderful leading roles on stage and had the whole 'China Beach' years where I really played a leading man on that. That was a fun change for a character actor. But I'm perfectly happy going back to building my gallery of memorable character roles.

The best way to tell an actor he's going to be working more and much harder is to appeal to his ego.

Most of my major roles have been to play characters that the audience does not initially like or warm up to and then they grow to like in spite of that.

I don't get 'Star Wars.' I just don't.

As an actor, you're never supposed to complain about being too busy because it can go the other way real fast.

Nobody wants to play - I've talked to Brent Spiner about this. You don't want to play a character indefinitely who's not supposed to age.

My character on 'Voyager,' because of the way he was presented, I could go either way. I could be a real buffoon, a windbag, be self-involved, and we could get a lot of comic mileage from him. However, the audience accepted me with gravity when I was in a dire situation, so they would follow me in comic or dramatic stories.

Let's face it: Amanda Tapping's shoes are difficult to fill. She's a great actress and a popular character on 'Stargate'; she's just a lovely person.

No one can replace Amanda Tapping.

I think there's something inherently interesting in the Monday morning quarterback: the guy who, you know, sits at one end of the briefing room and tells everyone what they should've done and how they've screwed up.

Yuri's Night is a world celebration for everyone who's interested in a human presence in space - without concern for politics, the Cold War, countries that do and don't have space programs.

I went to the William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia, where I had a teacher really named Edward Shakespeare. He was a very influential figure in my childhood - I acted in high school a few times, but Mr. Shakespeare got me to lead in 'The Crucible.' I played John Proctor.

Even though my face has gotten more familiar with doing 'China Beach' and 'The Wonder Years,' I'm the kind of actor that people thought, 'Gee, that guy looks familiar. He must have put my storm windows in. He works at my bank or something.'

I can walk down the street, and 85 percent of the people on the block are really quite oblivious to me. They either think I'm probably an actor or else I installed their storm windows two years ago, or I work at their bank, or maybe I'm their cousin Marie's gynecologist. Then, to the other 15 percent of those people on the street, I'm a rock star.

Jerry Goldsmith's 'Voyager' theme is a brilliant reworking of the original material.

People admire a screen actor if they have theatre skills, but it's looked down upon by the industry as being not a 'real job,' in the way it isn't in New York or the U.K.

Science fiction fans are great, but they just aren't the same as groupies.

What's wonderful about 'Star Trek' having been rebooted so successfully by the J. J. Abrams movie franchise is that - the corollary effect is that it creates a new generation of fans, and they're interested in all of it. They don't just sit around and wait for the next movie to come out; they'll go back and re-examine episodes.

I could not play a straight-ahead courageous hero. It's not what I do.

Sometimes I have little movies that I've made that I wish would be seen by a larger audience. I have a horror movie called 'Sensored' which I'm very creepy and disgusting in, and then I have a family drama called 'The Legends of Nethiah' which has a science-fiction B-story.

I love to play humorous moments in dramatic shows. That's always the most fun: to keep the logic of the character in a show that's basically action-adventure and then play the comedy moments.