Levar Burton Quotes

For me, literacy means freedom. For the individual and for society.

I think reading is part of the birthright of the human being

Human beings are the laziest creatures in the history of creation. We would rather not do anything if we could avoid it.

Read the books they don’t want you to. That’s where the good stuff is.

It takes just as much energy to be an asshole as it does to be kind.

I understand the fear that by losing contact with books on the printed page, we're somehow surrendering some aspect of our humanity, but that's just not the case…Stories were alive long before pages. Stories were theater. Stories were hieroglyphics…The medium is not the message. The medium is the delivery system. The story is the message.

In a society that functions optimally, those who can should naturally want to provide for those who can't. That's how it's designed to work. I truly believe we're here to take care of one another.

We spend an inordinate amount of money of the federal budget on the machinery of war, and neglect our kids in the process, and it's not OK

I felt like it was important to use my life to help others. I think we all feel that, to some degree. In fact, I know we do. I believe we all have a contribution to make, we have all come here with a specific intention to contribute something unique to who we are. And our job is to identify as best as we are able what that thing is that we are meant to do. What is our gift, what is our contribution. And when we do that, the world changes. There's a shift that happens that would not be there if it weren't for you, doing what you are meant to do.

So read the books they're banning, that's where the good stuff is! If they don't want you to read it, there's a reason why.

It’s hard to explain how important Star Trek is to me. I think I went to my first Star Trek convention when I was fifteen. So to hear that Leonard Nimoy—Mr. Spock—was on the phone, I was not processing what he was saying. I could only focus on his amazing voice. I thought this was a phone call to see if he’d agree to do the part, but in his mind, he had already agreed to do it! He had one specific note on the script, which is that Mr. Spock doesn’t use contractions when he speaks. He says “cannot;” he doesn’t say “can’t.” And I remember just being chagrined that I hadn’t intervened and had allowed this to go on. I loved Spock so much, I used to sneak lines of Mr. Spock dialogue from the movies and TV shows into Big Bang Theory and give them to Sheldon. There’s an episode early on where Sheldon and Leonard are having a fight, and Penny asks, “Well, how do you feel?” And Sheldon replies, “I don’t understand the question.” That’s from the beginning of Star Trek IV where Spock has reunited with his mind and his body, and is being quizzed by a computer about his status. So Leonard Nimoy was just one of many fanboy moments. I once said to LeVar Burton, “If I could go back in time and tell my teenage self there would be a day where I would eventually talk to three crew members of the USS Enterprise, I’d fall over and die.