I was with George Washington at Valley Forge, sitting around before an attack... gimme a break. That's over 70 years ago already.

Alan King, a comedian I adored, was considered society, and I was considered the Jewish kid from the neighborhood.

What I do is, I make fun of people and I make fun of myself and things around us and exaggerate things. And I'm never mean-spirited. See, the word insult means some guy who's a real unkind human being. But I don't do that, because otherwise I wouldn't be headlining all these years, thank god, and all these people showing up to see me.

I always say that comedians and actors were all kind of shy when they were young. I was very, believe it or not, kind of embarrassed as a child. But my mother was a very strong lady and she was the one that kept it going when I thought it would be over for me as a performer. She was always my inspiration and she was a big influence on me.

My father when walked into a room, you could tell that everybody loved him. They really did. He was quite a man. My mother was more into the show biz atmosphere than he was.

So many young people think the big sex act is the whole movie, but that's not the case. You need to be able to talk and laugh and cry together.

Italians are fantastic people, really. They can work you over in an alley while singing an opera.