Making It So: A Memoir

by Patrick Stewart

Occasionally, when I visit the homes of friends these days, I will see a Monopoly box sitting on a shelf, and the urge to play almost overwhelms me.

I spent hours in that toilet. In the depths of winter, I would wear an overcoat and a woolly hat. There was no lighting inside, so I took a candle with me, which provided illumination and warmth to my fingertips. And I read and read.

Do I have Adolf Hitler, of all people, to thank for my being in the world?

Never doubt the capacity of art to bring about moments of profound emotion and reflection.

Sometimes the sentiment It was a different time isn’t enough of a justification.

I was beginning to feel some unease with this Sting fellow, as if I’d put a foot wrong. “Do you… play in a group?” I asked. “Yes, with the Police,” he said. I broke into a broad grin. “You play in a police band?” I said. “Wow! How marvelous!”

I drove a Honda in London, so I went to the Honda showroom in Beverly Hills and selected a brand-new silver Prelude.

he was played by… my own son, Daniel,

But I suspect that what Whoopi Goldberg said to me rings true with many people of color: that Star Trek, in its different incarnations, presents an aspirational future preferable to our present—a future where inclusivity is a given rather than an effort.

For too long a time, I was reluctant to share my unserious side, but these days, that fear has been dispelled. Indeed, I think having comic chops benefits my more serious work, affording me a wider range of choices when I am performing.