George Takei Quotes - BrainyQuote

American - Actor Born: April 20, 1937

On a bus, your eyes, ears, and pores are open absorbing in the variety, the wonder, and the magic of the city. It's a wonderful way to get to know the city.

Eyes City Way Your

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

Work Colleagues Friends Professional

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.

Government American Here Japanese

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.

Me Father Home People

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.

Face Patriotism Fight Service

When I was going to gay bars in my 20s and 30s, the older guys there explained to me that the police would occasionally raid these places and march the clients out, load them onto paddy wagons, drive them down to the station, photograph them, fingerprint them and put their names on a list. They were doing nothing wrong, and it was criminalized.

Me Drive Police Down

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.

Life Happiness Man People

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

Memories Old Years Four

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

Strength Acceptance Diversity About

It has a Nazi echo, doesn't it? The Jews had to wear that Star of David, and Donald Trump is saying all Syrians have to carry an ID card and they can, without warrant, go into any Syrian's home or a mosque.

Home Go Saying Mosque

Top 10
George Takei
Quotes

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.

Life My Life People American

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.

Day Success Morning Gift

I intend to live life, not just exist.

Life Live Life Live Just Exist

'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.

People Society Great Gay

It was an egregious violation of the American Constitution. We were innocent American citizens, and we were imprisoned simply because we happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor. It shows us just how fragile our Constitution is.

People Look Innocent Constitution

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

Justice Equality More Social Justice

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

Man Nice Be Nice Call

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.

Remember Landscape Machine Yes

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.

War World America Old

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.

Gay Career Lesson Out

You know, I grew up in two American internment camps, and at that time I was very young.

Time You Know Young

I love people. When you're engaged with society and trying to make it a better society, you're an optimist.

Love You People Society

I've run the marathon several times, so I definitely don't look like the Great Ancestor!

Look Great Run Like

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.

Me Important Country Know

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

Movies Three Get Close

When Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the same-sex marriage bill, my blood was boiling. I had been silent, but that night, Brad and I watched the news and saw all these young people pouring out on Santa Monica Boulevard venting their rage, and I said, 'I have to speak out.'

Marriage People Night News

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