We gave each other a hug, [Richard Pryor] said how much he admired me, I said how much I admired him, and we started working the next morning, and we hit it off really well, and he taught me how to improvise on camera.

For what we are about to see next, we must enter quietly into the realm of genius!

On stage or in the movies I could do whatever I wanted to. I was free.

And Mel [Brooks] - you have to understand this important point - he had done "The Producers" for $50,000 over two years, and he didn't make a penny from it. And then he did "The Twelve Chairs" - $50,000 for two more years and didn't make a penny from it. That's four years of work. And then they offered him quite a bit of money to direct "Young Frankenstein," and he took it.

Which one of us, anywhere in the world, doesn't yearn to be believed when the audience is watching?

I'm in complete remission. I'm alive and well.

Great art direction is NOT the same thing as great film direction!