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Daily Inspiration Quote by William Shatner

"But if you want to know the truth, the weirdest thing that has happened has been my discovery that people who attend the conventions are filled with love"

About this Quote

Shatner slips a little amazement into plain speech, and that’s the point: he’s confessing that the punchline he expected never landed. For years, “Star Trek conventions” were an easy cultural shorthand for obsessive fandom, social awkwardness, grown adults in costumes. The actor most visibly tethered to that image was Shatner himself, often cast as both beneficiary and hostage of a phenomenon that outgrew its TV origins. So when he calls his discovery “the weirdest thing,” he’s not talking about aliens or warp drive. He’s talking about being wrong.

The phrasing matters. “But if you want to know the truth” has the feel of an aside, a break from the public script. It’s an actor dropping the performance voice to admit something unexpectedly tender. Then he lands on “filled with love,” a deliberately unsnarky phrase that refuses the usual distance celebrities keep from their audiences. He doesn’t say they’re loyal, or passionate, or devoted to the franchise. He chooses an emotion that points beyond consumption and toward community.

The subtext is twofold: the fans aren’t just there for him; they’re there for each other. Conventions become less a marketplace than a temporary city where people practice belonging. Shatner’s surprise also reveals how fame can warp expectations; when you’re treated as an icon, it’s easy to assume everyone else is treating life like a role. His “discovery” is a quiet reversal: the supposedly strange people are the ones offering the most straightforward human warmth, and the celebrity is the one catching up.

Quote Details

TopicLove
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APA Style (7th ed.)
Shatner, William. (2026, January 17). But if you want to know the truth, the weirdest thing that has happened has been my discovery that people who attend the conventions are filled with love. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-if-you-want-to-know-the-truth-the-weirdest-78998/

Chicago Style
Shatner, William. "But if you want to know the truth, the weirdest thing that has happened has been my discovery that people who attend the conventions are filled with love." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-if-you-want-to-know-the-truth-the-weirdest-78998/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"But if you want to know the truth, the weirdest thing that has happened has been my discovery that people who attend the conventions are filled with love." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-if-you-want-to-know-the-truth-the-weirdest-78998/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.

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William Shatner on Love at Fan Conventions
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William Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Actor from Canada.

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