Andy Rooney

I have a great friend, maybe the smartest man in America, Jacques Barzun. He . . . wrote a book . . . two years ago, From Dawn to Decadence. And I was having dinner with him a couple years ago. And he was 94 at the time. And this gave me such hope. But I worry about it myself, losing it mentally.

And I said to Jacques, I said, are you writing as well as you used to? He says, better than ever. And he is. I mean, it’s—it gave me great confidence.

—Andy Rooney, Interviewed by Larry King, July 28, 2002