I love my own coincidences and love to hear other peoples' stories.

Coming up through the ranks of any calling can be rough, but that battered soul who survives the early years of courting the comic muse comes close to knowing what only the soldier knows: What combat is like.

While other kids were out playing and doing healthy things, I read an ancient judo book with a neck hold that was fatal to so many people they finally dropped it from judo.

Can you picture yourself at the age 60 doing what you do now?

The sudden death at 51 of James Gandolfini is intolerable.

Being the offspring of English teachers is a mixed blessing. When the film star says to you, on the air, 'It was a perfect script for she and I,' inside your head you hear, in the sarcastic voice of your late father, 'Perfect for she, eh? And perfect for I, also?'

A biggest mistake I made when I started doing a talk show was I thought you had to read the books.