I don’t think there is a person who has worked on this show who has not said to himself, “I am taking a calculated risk with my health. I could die of a heart attack because of the strain of this work.” It’s a risk, but a calculated one. It’s one of the risks you take, just as an airplane pilot or deep sea diver takes another type of risk. There is a compulsion when you are a creative person. A compulsion that drives you to do what you are doing, and you justify whatever price you have to pay with the knowledge that there is something about what you are doing that you love very much. And particularly with men – it’s a part of what makes a man a man. And if he didn’t do it, he would be considerably less than he is.
Gene Roddenberry in The Making of Star Trek, 1968
You had me right up until the last couple of sentences there, Gene.
