What is the best sandwich? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\u201cThis is one of the toughest questions and we start with this one. Billy, what time of year are we talking here? Because there\u2019s a summer sandwich and then there\u2019s every other part of the year sandwich, and if we\u2019re talking summer, it\u2019s a tomato sandwich on very thin white bread. With a lot of salt and pepper, maybe a little mayo, and you eat it over the sink. It\u2019s called a sink sandwich because it just falls apart in your hand. \u2026 The rest of the year, wherever you are, the rest of the year is hot pastrami on rye with a little bit of mustard. And if the guy behind the counter is willing, a little coleslaw on there, and if it\u2019s not kosher deli, I\u2019ll take a little Munster on there. But Katz\u2019s Deli\u2019s hot pastrami sandwich, that\u2019s the best sandwich.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat is the first concert you attended?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\u201cThe first concert I attended was at Gaillard Auditorium in Charleston, South Carolina. I went with my mom. It was in 1977. It was. Chuck Mangione, the \u201cChildren of Sanchez.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat is the scariest animal?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\u201cSo the scariest animal to me is a trapdoor spider. And here\u2019s the part that\u2019s even scarier than that, Josh Brolin. A scientist named a trapdoor spider after me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tApples or oranges?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\u201cWell, you can\u2019t put peanut butter on an orange. So, I\u2019m gonna risk the wrath of the Seraphim and say I will bite the apple.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHave you ever asked someone for their autograph?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\u201cOh yeah! I did a bit with Steve Martin years ago, the first time I ever had him on the old show. A huge fan of Steve Martin. Like he\u2019s in my Mount Rushmore of comedy, and as part of it, we were talking about a painting and we added to the painting a little cutout of Steve\u2019s head. It was from his headshot. And when the show was over, I said, \u2018Hey, would you mind signing this?\u2019 So he just signed across the top of his face, and I had it framed on a lovely little background and hung in my office. But I hung it, or whoever hung it, hung it where there used to be a clock in my office, and so we\u2019re always on deadline here and that clock is just spinning around super fast, so I would just look up to see what time it was and there would be the picture. So I like to say in my office, \u2018It\u2019s always Steve Martin o\u2019clock.’\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat do you think happens when we die?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\u201cWhat comes to mind when I ask this question, it\u2019s more like a feeling, and the feeling is that when we die, I think there is some continuance of some kind. But it\u2019s like a dispersion of the self into some other greater being. And I don\u2019t have any other feelings beyond that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFavorite action movie?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\u201cThis is a toughie. My favorite movie is horror, that\u2019s the thing, so I don\u2019t think that\u2019s action. I think it\u2019s more horror than action. Raiders of the Lost Ark.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWindow or aisle?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\u201cI have the bladder of just a baby chipmunk, so I like the aisle because I don\u2019t wanna have to say to the person next to me, \u2018I need to get up,\u2019 so I\u2019m on the aisle at all times.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFavorite smell?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\u201cMy favorite smell is when we are going out someplace and you go upstairs to get ready first. And then I come up to follow you and when I get to like the top of the stairs, I know that you\u2019ve already gotten out of the shower because I can smell that like rose lotion. And I know that you\u2019re in there wearing very little.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tLeast favorite smell?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\u201cI was young, I was maybe 10 or 11, and I had a next-door neighbor across the street, the Millers. And Mrs. Miller was really lovely. We used to talk all the time, even when the kids weren\u2019t around. She was really a lovely woman, and I remember one day she was cleaning out underneath the sink. I was just sitting on the barstool in the kitchen. And you know how people keep jars of grease, like they collect their grease, and it had either broken or the jar lid had come loose and the grease had poured into a bag of sugar. And the bag of sugar had turned rancid, so it\u2019s either the grease had turned the sugar rancid or the sugar had turned the grease rancid, one of the two. But she said to me, \u2018Do you wanna smell just the worst thing?\u2019 \u2026 And I said, \u2018Sure,\u2019 and I smelled it, and I can\u2019t possibly describe what it\u2019s like. But I remember even as a boy going, \u2018Wow, I know there\u2019s some bad smells, like we humans make our own bad-smelling things, which you can obviously think of, but this was so much worse than anything else I\u2019d ever smelled.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat is your earliest memory?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\u201cI was born in Washington, D.C., and I have a memory of my mom up on a little, short ladder with her hair in a little scarf back there, either painting the bedroom brown. And I asked her, \u2018How old would that be?\u2019 And she said, \u2018You were maybe three when I did that,\u2019 but that kind of makes sense because I remember not being able to say something to her. Like I remember being frustrated that she couldn\u2019t quite understand what I was trying to tell her, but I remember what I was trying to tell her, and what I was trying to tell her was my earliest memory. Because I was trying to tell her about the dream I\u2019d had the night before, and I remember I had a dream about Snowflake, the albino gorilla that was at the National Zoo. There was a pure white gorilla at the National Zoo, and I had a dream of an albino King Kong. \u2026 And that\u2019s what I couldn\u2019t get across to my mom. So I have an inception in my memory. I have another dream in my memory, and that\u2019s my earliest memory is not being able to tell my mom my memory.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tCats or dogs?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\u201cDogs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tYou get one song to listen to for the rest of your life: what is it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\u201cThe song that comes to mind when I\u2019m asking people this question, at the risk of being pretentious, which is too late for me now, is Glenn Gould\u2019s execution of [Felix] Mendelssohn\u2019s \u2018Song Without Words\u2019 in E Major Op. 19 No. 1.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat number am I thinking of?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s a hint as to what the answer is, because whenever somebody answers the question and gives the wrong answer, I always say, \u2018No.\u2019 And when I give the right answer, which has happened at least twice \u2014 Meryl Streep and Ethan Hawke guessed correctly \u2014 and Ethan Hawke immediately goes, \u2018I know what it is. It\u2019s three.\u2019 That\u2019s the number I was thinking of.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHow would you describe the rest of your life in 5 words?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\u201cMy family, my friends, fun.\u201d<\/p>\n