"You're not supposed to. No man should know where his dreams come from! It spoils the mystery - the fun." Soong walks right up to Data and takes his face in his hands. "I'm proud of you, son; I wasn't sure you'd ever develop the cognitive abilities to make it this far. But if you're here - if you can see me - you've crossed over the threshold of being a collection of circuits and subprocessors, and have started a wonderful journey."
"What type of journey?" Data now finds himself on a lab table, although still on the bridge.
"Think of it ... think of it as an empty sky," replies Soong.
from a synopsis of the
Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Birthright, Part I."
Reading the entire synopsis will give the context of the quote, for those who are not such devoted fans that they already know the context. I simply wanted to focus on this piece of the scene as having special meaning.
If you are Tim Lynch, the author of the synopsis I quoted above, I did try to write to you at tlynch@juliet.caltech.edu for permission to quote from your synopsis, but the mail bounced ("user unknown"), so please write to me if you see this.