Scott Bakula

I've always had an affinity for lawyers. My dad is a lawyer. He's retired now. My brother is a lawyer. It's always been easy, the legalese.

I like fantasy. I've always been the kind of kid who likes to dream about other things I could be and exotic situations I could be in.

The 'NCIS' franchise is beyond successful.

By all standards, except for 'Star Trek' standards, 98 episodes of any television show is a wildly successful run.

And I've always felt comfortable certainly in a courtroom because you're just performing. And there was a time in my life when I thought when I grew up I'd be a trial lawyer myself.

If you're a fan of Shirley MacLaine just like I am, I'd kinda go anywhere to work with her.

I am very much against weapons in space. And I wish we could be spearheading that program to come to some kind of international agreement so that doesn't happen. That is my only - fear - in further space exploration like always, we hope it doesn't get abused.

The reality of our business is that for every actor who's rolled up his tent and given up and gone home, the next day you hear about some shoe salesman at Macy's who had this audition and now he's Harrison Ford. There's always that carrot out there in our business.

What we are as actors, for better and for worse, is visible.

You want to try and bring a character to life in an honest a way as you possibly can. It doesn't matter whether he's a doctor, an actor, a car salesman or a captain of a starship. If you can bring truth and honesty to that character, then your audience will believe you.

The great thing about show business is that there's no mandatory retirement age.

Running for me has always been a great place to get away. It's a great stress reliever for me. It's great if I need to be working on something in my mind, whether it's things I need to be memorizing or thinking about, or I have some presentation coming up.

Years ago, I did a CBS audition. I was nervous. They introduced me as 'Scott Bakoola.' Not a good sign. I also didn't get the show.

I grew up in St. Louis, and I don't know if you've ever been to St. Louis in the middle of summer. There are days in the summer sometimes, weeks in the summer, where the temperature can be over 100 degrees and the humidity can be 100 percent.

My favorite thing about running is running when it's as hot as it can be, which is a little odd.

For actors, we always feel like there shouldn't be any divide for anybody. The industry is the one that kind of creates the idea that if you're such-and-such an actor, you can't be on the big screen.

I've composed a fair amount in my life, and some of them have made it on to the screen, some compositions that I've done, a few. And I like doing that. I had never really considered doing a full-length thing. I've worked with other people creating full-length pieces.

Clive Barker is just genius, and he's incredibly gifted in so many different ways. He can write and direct and paint and do all these different things, and he can do them all extremely well.

The movies are about big tent pole movies and big action and effects.

Sunday night was such a big night for television when I was growing up you know, The Wonderful World of Disney.

Ideally, people find mates with whom they can express both their masculine and feminine sides.

My kids are good athletes and runners. They run in a bunch of sports.

If I can avoid looking at myself, I will. I don't care to examine myself or see much of what I do. I never care how I look.

The biggest challenge for everybody to realize out there is that we're in a very complicated business world and that were all under one umbrella and it's very challenging for everybody to figure out where the priorities lie and where the loyalties lie.

I've always had an affinity for lawyers. My dad is a lawyer. He's retired now. My brother is a lawyer.

New Orleans has a unique history as a great melting pot of all kinds of cultures, and that manifests itself now through the food, the music, and the kinds of people who live there.

I get nervous even guesting on other people's shows.

The longest show I've ever done was four and a half years, so I can only imagine what ending an eight year show is like.

A lot of people don't know that I'm a singer - that's my thing, really.

To do something for other people when they need it most just feels good.

Sunday night was such a big night for television when I was growing up - you know, 'The Wonderful World of Disney.'

I've always been a big fan of time travel, and I'm very into the notion that some day we'll be able to do it. Beam me up!

In the fantasy, sci-fi world, the fans are so discerning and they're so tough and they're so intelligent, and they're so critical.

I don't even know how many times I auditioned for Danny Zuko in 'Grease.'

Liberace was a miracle. You talk about who he was and what he did, and then you look at who he inspired, from Elton John to Cher to Michael Jackson to Bette Midler. There are so many people that came to see him. Elvis was there, watching his shows.

I've shot a lot of places, and I've produced. I always thought, 'Gosh, when you shoot in a big city, it's so difficult.' And New York, I always think, 'Where are you going to park the trucks? How are you going to stop the traffic?'

My oldest son started to like 'South Park' and 'Family Guy,' so we'd watch together so I could spend time with him.

I was a huge fan of the original 'Star Trek,' and I'd never even dreamed that I would someday be captain of a starship.

I've always been told I had an old face. So when I was in my 20s, I never got to play a teenager.

I'm a runner from sports. I've been a runner, but I wasn't a cross-country runner or anything like that. I played a lot of soccer growing up.

My daughter, when she was younger, was crazy about 'The X-Files,' so I'd watch that with her.

On the whole, show business is a hard business in which to be married.

I love 'White Christmas.' That's one of my favorites just because I love the music. I love the story, Bing Crosby. It's just one of my all time favorites. And it's hard to have a Christmas without seeing a little bit of Jimmy Stewart and angels running around town.

I'm constantly involved in theater, looking at theater, trying to do work in theater, support theater. And that's kind of my creative passion.

It's a joyful, humbling feeling to be in different places around the planet, and people have seen shows that I'm proud of being a part of, that do have things to say about the human condition, the planet, and who we are and where we've come from, that will sustain.

'Behind The Candelabra' is an HBO movie. It's the Liberace story. Michael Douglass and Matt Damon. I play a small part in it. I play a choreographer who introduces, brings Matt Damon to Las Vegas for the first time.

I haven't really thought about where to scatter my ashes when the time comes, but I doubt that it would be in space.

Well, I'm... first and foremost I'm a theater guy and everything that I know comes from the theater.

The end of shows are a nightmare for everybody because there is so much pressure to satisfy everyone, which of course you can't do.

I don't think that a company should own a studio and the network, and program for their own network. It hurts the creativity - it is not a level playing field.

These sci-fi fans are phenomenal in the standards that they hold you to.

I went into show business because I love to work with people, and what I enjoy most about acting is rehearsing and getting to know people and their talents, forming relationships. Working in this business, barriers drop and you get into people real quickly.

I was actually cut out of 'L.A. Story'... and rightfully so.