King was married eight times, to seven women, including his high-school sweetheart, a Playboy Bunny, a math teacher, and businesswoman.
The less you know
He famously does very little research on the guests he interviews, citing that when interviewing authors, he did not read their books in advance, so that he would not know more than his audience.
World record holder
During his career, he did more than 60,000 interviews. CNN's Larry King Live became "the longest-running television show hosted by the same person, on the same network and in the same time slot", and was recognized for it by the Guinness Book of Worl...
It was a Sunday morning, and I was a young disc jockey in Miami Beach. Me and 3 friends of mine were going to drive up to Palm Beach, in 1958, we rolled up to Palm Beach in a convertible, I was driving, and it was a beautiful Sunday morning. And I was looking up, looking at all the beautiful homes, and suddenly I bumped into a car stopped at a red light. I was only going about 10 miles an hour. The guy in the car jumped out, walked over to me, and said "how could you hit me!? there's nobody on the road, it's a beautiful day, how could you hit me?!" and I said "I'm sorry, we were looking up, I apologize, do you want my license." And he said "no, I'm Senator Kennedy, I'm going to run for Presi...
I stopped smoking, I lost weight, I became very conscious of health. I became a good patient. My father died at age 46 of a heart attack. I had my heart attack at age 53, and now I'm 80. So I must be doing something right, even though I'm currently eating a pizza slice. If I drop off in the middle of this, goodbye to all.
Snoop Dogg is one of my main men. You don't have to smoke pot to be in his presence. I love him, he's bright, he's fun, he's a good father, and a good man. Snoop is my man.
I have hundreds of great jokes, I live for great jokes. Here's a current one.
Man goes to a doctor, and he says "I have bad news, and worse news."
The doctor says "The bad news is, you have cancer."
The patient says "That's terrible! What's the worst news?"
The doctor says "You also have Alzheimer's"
And the patient says "thank god I don't have cancer!"
Dr. Jan Adams walked off the show, Mel Brooks jumped on top of the desk and sang a song called "Dancing in the Dark" saying it was how old jews die, they jump on the desk, they can't hit the high note, and they die. Or when I asked Heather Mills to show me what an artificial leg looked like, and she took it off. That was a great moment.
I get up around 6:15, my 15 year old gets driven to his school (he goes to Notre Dame in the Valley) and I drive my 14 year old to his school which is closer to the house. Then I go and have breakfast with my friends at the bagel shop. Then I go read my newspapers, I read 5 a day. I usually have a lunch with friends or business associates. And in the afternoon, I watch an hour of ESPN, usually pick up one of the boys from school, have dinner at home or with friends, half the time at home or half the time out, watch mostly sports on TV, and get to bed around 11-11:30. Kind of boring huh?
That's probably the stupidest question I've ever heard. But my answer would be: that's the dumbest question I've ever heard. Give me 100 little duck-sized horses.
I've interviewed almost 60,000 people. It's impossible to pick one out.
I've interviewed 7 Presidents, Marlon Brando, to Frank Sinatra, to Nelson Mandela, to Martin Luther King, it's impossible.
I take a lot of vitamins. I take heart medications. And I take HGH, I've been taking that for years in pill form, I know it's banned in baseball but my doctor credits it for my vitality. I know i feel young, I don't get jet-lagged when I fly. So chalk it up to HGH.
Always pursue your goal and never give up.
If someone can talk you out of what you want to be, then you don't to be it. A friend of mine's father, when I was 18, would walk down the street with me and say "What are you crazy?! You want to be Arthur Godfrey? What are you nuts!? Come work at my factory, I'll make you a foreman someday!"
And I never gave up.
I've never had a desire to eat a turnip, or an oyster, or to ride a motorcycle, or I never wanted to parachute. George H.W. Bush wanted me to jump out of a plane with him on his 80th birthday, we would have been in tandem, I would have done that, but my doctor wouldn't let me. I don't know what that has to do with a turnip, but there we are.
The first minute with Frank Sinatra - Jackie Gleason had arranged the interview for me, I was nervous. It was the first time I was nervous. But I got over it in a minute. And Frank eventually became a friend.
Being always curious. I was a curious child with just about everything, I always wanted to know why, so I always wanted to be in broadcasting, never had any other goal, so I found the perfect venue for me, which is asking questions.
I think it's a matter of approach. I think I'm very comfortable to be around. They know I'm sincerely interested in them. That I will listen completely to their answer, I make good eye contact, and I care about what they have to say.
And I don't use the word "I" because the interview subject is not me.
I don't discount UFOs. I don't discount anything. It would be logical to think that there's more than this planet, and more than this universe. It is all so enormous to me, that I'm always amazed that there are people who know the answer, whether there is a god or isn't a god. The truth is, I don't know, and I'm always amazed at people who know. I don't know if there are UFOs, or if there aren't UFOs. I just hope I'm around long enough to know both answers.
And if you can book them on my show, great!
I don't know. I remember when I was 9 years old, I would ask the bus driver why he wanted to drive the bus. We would go to Dodgers Games in Brooklyn, and my friends would want autographs, and I would want to ask questions. My 15 year old inherited that gene from me, he is constantly asking questions. I don't know where that gene came from.
That's one of the products of the Jewish faith, encouraging learning. I did not go to college, I only went to high school, but emphasis on learning and being creative.
My favorite question is: Why?
Because Why can't be answered in one word.
The loss of the typewriter. I loved my typewriter, I loved typing my columns. Second to that, I miss letters. I miss getting mail by people who actually write letters. I like mail. I like putting a stamp on an envelope and sending it in a box. I like transmission, but I don't need to know things immediately.
Larry King