It's been phenomenal, but everybody keeps congratulating me on my resurgence and my big comeback. I haven't been away, guys. I've been working steadily for the last 63 years.

You can always tell about somebody by the way they put their hands on an animal.

I'm just happy as a lark having a good health. People say are you thinking about retiring, I don't have time to think about retiring.

A good friend of mine was Lucy Ball. Her mother and my mother were best friends.

I don't know where I learned elephants like their tongues slapped. Whatever turns you on.

I've worked with the Los Angeles Zoo for 45 years, and we have this magnificent photographer, Tad Motoyama. He takes these wonderful, wonderful animal pictures. All through the years he's given me copies of these pictures. Well, I have all these gorgeous ones, so I said, 'Tad, I want to do a book with your picture on one side.'

Throughout my career, I've always portrayed characters that were humorous, but also weren't afraid to speak their minds, especially when it came to racy or controversial topics. I think this struck a chord with the LGBT community. We both also share a very strong love for animals. When you combine the two, it's a very strong match.