Regis Philbin

“As a matter of fact I don't like politics. I really don't. I think it's so jaded now and everybody has to follow the party line.”

“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'.”

“I must have been six or seven years old at the time. My family lived on the bottom floor of a two-story house on Cruger Avenue in the Bronx, and every night at 9:30, I sat by my little radio in our kitchen and listened to a half hour of Bing's records regularly spilling out over WNEW.”

“I've done the best I can with the morning show. I made it a morning show. We have the coffee cup, you have the morning papers, you know, it's got that feel to it, that's what I wanted.”

“I gotta tell you, right at the top of my list would be taking vitamins. I know that over the years doctors have said they're ridiculous and all that. But I started taking my vitamins at an early age. And I take them every day. Every bloody day! So I think that's number one. For whatever reason, I feel active and pretty good at my age.”

“I realized there was a difference between a syndicated morning show and prime time. 'Regis saved the network!' I used to walk around saying that. I was a big man! I was a giant!”

“I knew that the show was coming and they wanted me to have a co-host. And so I asked Mary Hart and she was one of the first. Before that it was Sarah Purcell then Cindy Garvey. Then Mary Hart, then Cindy Garvey again here in New York, then Anne Abernathy and then Kathy Lee, who stayed 15 years. And now Kelly has been there eight.”

“We play a lot of tennis, and we work out at the gym three or four times a week. As you get older, you feel those aches and pains, so Advil's become a friend in the house.”

“Regis can do anything these young punks can do. I fit right in there with my Fox people. They want Regis to dance, Regis will dance. They want Regis to lift weights with them, Regis will lift weights with them. Whatever they want!”

“I like Strahan a lot. I've known him for years. He was a Giant here - in many ways. Had a big following with the New York Giants. He's very funny. He's got a great sense of humor.”

“I try to stay in shape, I work out in the gym, take my vitamins every day, and I guess maybe I have some good genes, but lately I've been feeling it. You know, after all these years it does catch up with you. But just for now.”

“I guess I'm afraid to retire because I don't know what I would do. I don't know what my talent is. So I don't know. So maybe I'm afraid to stop, but I've got to stop.”

“I guess people wonder if I'm the same on camera as I am off, and I'm pretty much the same, I really am. But that's always asked of me.”

“So when I got the chance to do my first talk show, 50 years ago last month, I never had any writers. There was no budget - it was just me and the camera and my friend who was the director. I talked about what I'd done that week.”

“It's almost seems as though there's a battle going on between the public and all the fast-food establishments, and, believe me, I think it's very tasty food.”

“All my life, all I've wanted to do was a talk show, and I've done it for most of my life. Now to break away from that is kind of a challenge.”

“Anyone who's ever driven to Atlantic City knows that Trump's got a big billboard. For years, you used to see his angry face on it. I said, 'Trump, that expression is making people afraid to go to the Taj Mahal. Why don't you give them a big smile.? 'C'mon in, folks! Spend your money here!' I think we got that corrected.”

“I'm involved in the stock market, which is fun and, sometimes, very painful.”

“All through high school and college, my parents would ask me over and over again, 'What are you going to do with your life? What do you want to be?' Well, in my heart I wanted to be a singer like Bing, but I worried about the reality of that dream. Did I think for one minute that I had the voice to pull it off? Of course not.”

“I've worked for 55 years. I'm going to take a little time off, to tell you the truth. It's just that now in the last couple of weeks, Gelman is pouring it on. 'Farewell to Regis!' It's getting embarrassing.”