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The Many Iterations of William Shatner
pickens writes "The NY Times weekend magazine has a long profile, well worth reading, of self-described 'working actor' William Shatner. He began acting at age 6 and at one point in the late 1950s was mentioned in the same breath as his contemporaries Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, and Robert Redford — until, without explanation, his career faded before it bloomed. Shatner, now 79, pulls no punches in his memories of the Star Trek years. 'I never thought it'd become a big deal, just 13 episodes and out,' says Shatner. 'I didn't think I was hard to get along with. There were a few disaffected actors who came in once a week. I had nothing to do with them. Friendly! I was working seven days a week, learning 10 pages of dialogue a day. They had one line!' Which was the beginning of the William Shatner character. 'They said I was this William Shatner character, and I figured I had to be it. Pompous, takes himself seriously, hardheaded.' Shatner said that that character evolved slowly, until one day he realized he couldn’t change it. 'So I played it. But I didn’t see it. That character doesn’t seem like me to me. I know the real William Shatner.'"
Actually, you're pulling that quote entirely out of context. If you read the entire interview below from where that quote originates, you'll find the comment is in jest and the whole interview is flippant and comedic in tone; Shatner never gives serious answers. As a post further up notes, "big targets are easy to hit" and though I don't wish to be an apologist, I think you may have mistook his unusual and occasionally brilliant approach to self deprecation via aggrandizement as someone who is actually delusional:
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/community/chat/archive/transcript/1086.html