- I had a blocked artery. The great thing about it was that all the people sitting at home, watching on the couch, feeling the same thing... got up and called the doctor. I still get letters thanking me for saving people's lives.
- [Of Mickey Rooney's 90th birthday in 2010] Celebrating his 90th birthday, after all these years. When I was a little kid, I used to watch him when he was in his heyday, and it was a great show tonight, it really was, it meant a lot to a lot of people.
- [of his heart surgery]: I guess I was a little unprepared for, you know, the first week and what they actually do to make this thing happen - and so, some of it came as quite a shock.
- I had my years of struggling. Some of my shows failed miserably, and I was upset by it and it dented my confidence. But I never stopped. I kept going for it.
- [before he made it big]: I missed so many opportunities along the way to do what I wanted to do because I didn't have the confidence to tell myself, much less anybody else, 'Yes, this is the business I wanted to be a part of,' and not feeling that I had the talent ... and letting it go all the way through [my college years at] Notre Dame and then through two years of Navy service.
- I would do the morning show and then just walk over to the network side of the building here at ABC in New York and sit down and start it up again and introduce the 10 contestants, and then introduce the 10 - the fastest finger question, and pick one of them, put them in the seat before you finally got to asking them the questions.
- If I'm out the night before, and I went to the Friars Club last night, they had a party for the book, so I enjoyed it. There was a lot of colorful people there, I could talk about it today, you know, on the show. Those are the days, the mornings that I miss.
- [on being a grandfather, for the 1st time]: To please me, they took my confirmation name - Xavier!
- [Of Kelly Ripa, who was absolutely disgusted about him leaving the show]: She got very offended when I left. She thought I was leaving because of her. I was leaving because I was getting older and that wasn't right for me anymore.
- You get a taste here in New Orleans that you don't get anywhere else in the country.
- You just don't go to the next question and you don't jump all over the guest. You let them be the star of whatever time they have with you!
- [on the success of 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?']: To tell you the truth, I don't think they can ever duplicate what we got the first time because it was a brand new show and it was the talk of the country and everybody was tuning in to see what the talk was all about. Now everybody knows what the show is and those who will remember it and loved it I'm sure we'll get them and I think it will do a good rating. I don't think it could be as high as the first one.
- [on what was about to do, after he died]: I love Notre Dame. I want my ashes scattered there.
- [Of Frank Gifford]: I've spent most of my life watching Frank. From the time he brought his Southern Cal team into Notre Dame stadium in 1949, I watched him through all those pro football years with the New York Giants and, of course, heard him with Don Meredith and Howard Cosell in calling football games that could never be duplicated again. That's how good they were."
- A great listener - that was my talent!
- [About the popularity of Live!]: I made it a morning show. We have the coffee cup, we have the morning papers. It's got that feel to it, that's what I wanted.
- [his trademark line]: Is that your final answer?
- [About his exercises]: Well, I work out three to four times a week, in a gym, which - thank God - is right in my building here in New York City. It's in the Reebok building, and it's got every kind of weightlifting equipment you can imagine, spread out over six floors, plus basketball courts and everything else. And because it's right in the building, there's no excuse.
- Even I have a little trepidation. You wake up in the morning and you say, 'What did I do last night that I can talk about? What's new in the paper? How are we gonna fill that 20 minutes?' I'm not gonna say it always works out brilliantly, but somehow we connect more often than we don't.
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