I play a starship captain on television's "Star Trek: Voyager" - the first female starship captain in the history of prime time, and I am passionate about her and life in the future. I play at living in space, 80 hours a week. It has naturally piqued a tremendous curiosity and interest in the real thing. I enjoy my career, and I like best the change, the challenge and overcoming what is small, embracing what is creatively big and important. I would however change the attraction to power and money into an attraction to simplicity and truth. I enjoy the constant practice of overcoming fear and mediocrity by forgetting self and learning the discipline of my craft.

I come from a large Irish-Catholic family, the oldest of eight. I am now the mother of three. We travel, cook, read and talk into the night about all these mysteries. I'm cultivating a love of science and attempting to share this passion with young women through acting and public speaking (I was invited to speak at a White House science meeting in 1995).

My greatest influence is my mother who told me to take the journey, question all things, read voraciously, love totally and with abandon, and develop a passion for a skill and a craft.

My future goal is to live, however briefly, a life of service and to live it in the company of people who are better, bolder, braver and bigger than I am. "Life is a gift - and it is short - therefore, excellence should be pursued on all levels, enhanced by conviction. "

Archived QuestChats with Kate Mulgrew

• March 2, 1999 (Listen to Kate's responses.)