I'm in the middle of my sixth book, which is about animals at the Los Angeles Zoo.

I love straight-face comedy or relatively subtle comedy. And then I turn around and I find myself doing very broad comedy but it's all fun and you have to keep your sense of humor and not take yourself seriously.

Animal lover that I am, a cougar I am not.

I'm a big cockeyed optimist. I try to accentuate the positive as opposed to the negative.

I'm having the time of my life and the fact that I'm still working -- how lucky can you get? I'm 90 years old and still able to work as much as I do. That's a privilege.

I happen to be blessed with loving what I do for a living. I love acting and I'm so fortunate to be able to work in this business. And I get these marvelous letters about how encouraging it is to see someone making the most of their time and still enjoying it.

My mother always used to say, 'The older you get, the better you get, unless you're a banana.'

Retirement is not a dirty word, I am just enjoying what I am doing. If they want me to retire, then stop asking me. Ask and I will say yes unless it is something I really don't like.

One thing they don't tell you about growing old -- you don't feel old, you just feel like yourself. And it's true. I don't feel eighty-nine years old. I simply am eighty-nine years old.

Retirement is not in my vocabulary. They aren't going to get rid of me that way.

I just make it my business to get along with people so I can have fun. It's that simple.

If you get into a Broadway show and it doesn't work, you're a failure. And if it does work, you may be stuck for who knows how long. It just doesn't sound great to me!

Well, I mean, if a joke or humor is bawdy, it's got to be funny enough to warrant it. You can't just have it bawdy or dirty just for the sake of being that -- it's got to be funny.

I don't know how people get so anti-something. Just mind your own business, take care of your own affairs, and don't worry about other people so much.

People who don't like cats haven't been around them. There's the old joke: dogs have masters, cats have staff.

You can always tell about somebody by the way they put their hands on an animal.

I'm just happy as a lark having a good health. People say are you thinking about retiring, I don't have time to think about retiring.

I go out to the kitchen to feed the dog, but that's about as much cooking as I do.

I've worked with the Los Angeles Zoo for 45 years, and we have this magnificent photographer, Tad Motoyama. He takes these wonderful, wonderful animal pictures. All through the years he's given me copies of these pictures. Well, I have all these gorgeous ones, so I said, 'Tad, I want to do a book with your picture on one side.'

I don't know where I learned elephants like their tongues slapped. Whatever turns you on.