My father was a dreamer - my hero. He was a smart, tough guy from Poland, a cutter of lady's handbags, an old socialist-unionist who always considered himself a failure. His big line was: 'Don't end up like me.'

I don't mind being 65, but nobody is gonna tell me to come in at 5:30 to have the early bird special.

The ability to absorb a book and make someone else's words and story your own was exactly was I was doing on stage.

Milton took vaudeville, which, if you look up 'vaudeville' in the dictionary, right alongside of it, it says 'Milton Berle' - and he made it just a tremendous party.

A summary of every Jewish holiday: They tried to kill us, we won, let's eat!

My father helped me leave. He said, 'It's all out there, it's not here.'

That's the great thing about New Year's, you get to be a year older. For me, that wasn't such a joke, because my birthday was always around this time. When I was a kid, my father used to tell me that everybody was celebrating my birthday. That's what the trees are all about.