Picard and Q in “Unfinished Business”

Picard

I can't live out my days as that person! That man is bereft of passion... and imagination! That is not who I am!

Q

Au contraire! He's the person you wanted to be. One who was less arrogant and undisciplined in his youth? One who was less like me? The Jean-Luc Picard you wanted to be -- the one who did not fight the Naussicans -- had quite a different career from the one you remember. That Picard never had a brush with death, never came face-to-face with his own mortality, never realized how fragile life is...or how important each moment can, and should, be. So his life never came into focus. He drifted for much of his career, with no plan or agenda, going from one assignment to the next, never seizing the opportunities that presented themselves. He never led the away team on Milica 3 to save the ambassador, never took charge of the Stargazer's bridge when its captain was killed; and no one ever offered him a command. He learned to play it safe...and he never, ever, got noticed by anyone.

Picard

You're right, Q. You gave me the opportunity to change, and I took it. But I see now that doing so was a mistake.

Q

Are you asking me for something, Jean-Luc?

Picard

Only for a chance to make things as they were before, the way I now realize they must be.

Q

Before, you died it Sickbay. Is that what you want?

Picard

I would rather die as the man I know is truly within me -- with a full life, a real life, behind me -- than have my name on the biography I just listened to.