I didn't know the answers, but I could feel that the things that gave life meaning came from a place within and from the nurturing of values like tolerance, charity, and community.

I wrote a little autobiography about how luck has to do with everything. It's called "My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business." A publisher came to me and said write a book so I did. I wanted to call it "Everybody Else Has Got a Book."

A lot of violence, a lot of gore in it, and I just didn't want to do that kind of thing.

I grew up in Danville, Illinois, right in the middle of the state.

If you spend your life thinking, "I wonder if today is when it ends," you're going to miss out on everything wonderful.

I've met presidents, but I've never performed for one. I said it was the first time in 50 years I actually had butterflies. You know, the Obamas were sitting out there, the Supreme Court, Maya Angelou, and Desmond Tutu for God's sake, all in the front row.

Everybody knows that I'm shorter, but it doesn't bother me at all.