Quotes

On doing a "Star Trek" convention after 10 years: "One of the main reasons I'm here, if not the entire reason I'm here, is to celebrate Gene Roddenberry. He discovered me, in many ways, when I was a kid in Hollywood, and he put me in two different segments of the original Star Trek (1966), which were a total joy to do. I cannot tell you how inventive and how creative everybody was who worked on that show, from the actors, the makeup, the hair, the camera ... I will never forget it as long as I live" (2006).

"Most of my career I have played interesting - particularly in my day which was a long time ago - interesting roles that were women doing something other than just motherhood. Sometimes it was just motherhood, which was also just as important. But also it was doctors, lawyers... Certainly that's how Gene always saw me, as a human being on the face of this Earth with some dignity, which is what I have tried to portray in all of my roles ... I think we tend as people to denigrate ourselves often, and the joy of trying to bring whatever that basic wonderful dignified thing is, that is in each and every human being, is very important to me." (2006)

About Gene Roddenberry: "The qualities that I admired so in him were his creativity, because in Hollywood they buy you because you're creative and then they try to take it all out of you, to make you commercial, and he never ever gave in." (2006)

I worked with him in the mid-'60s on Broadway in New York, and I was just a kid starting out and he was a big star and a character star, and the joy was that because he looked older he was playing wonderful older character roles which made him, I think, the great actor that he is today...he's wonderful! - about her L.A. Law (1986) co-star Richard Dysart.

I just fell in love with it, in love with the history of it, with all of it. I didn't discover film until much later. Beneath my dignity, film was. I was one of those repulsive creatures. (on her early days acting in school plays)

A lot of people ask me why I did Star Trek for a year and I said, "because it sounded wonderful and creative, fun and children's theater." It wasn't any of those things... that was a mistake of mine.

[2013, on if she considers herself retired from acting] You have to understand, actors do not ever retire. They just fade away.