DICK CLARK

Humor is always based on a modicum of truth. Have you ever heard a joke about a father-in-law?

Music is the soundtrack of your life.

If you want to stay young-looking, pick your parents very carefully.

It's real good to be back with you again this year.

I don't set trends. I just find out what they are and exploit them.

Well, I'm using a cane, so what? So what if they shot me sitting in a wheelchair? That's life!

I played records, the kids danced, and America watched.

I've never relegated the lip-synch to a lower form of entertainment. Lip-synching is an art unto itself. A lot of people can't do it.

I adhere to my exercise program, which is about 20 minutes a day. I do it seven days a week. I have a little stall in the breezeway of our garage where I have a walking machine, a stair climber, and I do 15 pound weights, and I watch television. Because I hate exercise.

It can be embarrassing. People come up to me and say, 'I love your show,' and I have no idea which one they're talking about.

I had made a great deal of money, and I was proud of it. I was a capitalist.

First job I had, I was 17 years old. I was primarily the mail room boy at the radio station. An FM station. And in those days, nobody listened to FM.

I was roundly criticized for being in and around rock & roll music at its inception. It was the devil's music: it would make your teeth fall out and your hair turn blue, whatever the hell. You get through that.

Between Alan Freed in Cleveland and Bob Horn and Lee Stewart in Philadelphia and George 'Hound Dog' Lorenz in Buffalo, they began to find out that white kids liked black music. It was a very significant period of time before I got there.

I have accomplished my childhood dream: to be in show business. Everybody should be so lucky to have their dreams come true. I've been truly blessed.

I could never turn to a guy and a girl and ask, 'Are you going steady?' That was absolutely a no-no - it was the Eisenhower period, and no parent wanted their kid going steady, so it wasn't a thing that you could endorse as proper behavior on the air.

My father said to me at one time, 'If you are still a disc jockey by the time you are 30, you better find another line of work.' Little does he realize, I am in my 70s, and I still do seven or eight hours of radio every day - or every week.

The Prince interview was a failure. Huge, but most memorable 'cause he didn't say anything.

Rock had a huge impact. Anything that the older generation hates is usually loved by kids. Nothing much changes - that still continues today.

Two-thirds of people with diabetes don't realize the seriousness that it can cause their hearts. They don't realize they can have a stroke, drop dead of a heart attack. So you've got to get this thing under control.

I love what I do. I love the invigoration of doing things I haven't done before.

In Presley's time, you didn't dare not to be a fan of his, because you were part of a club. Now you can say I prefer Billy Joel or Tina Turner or someone else. It's all fractionalized.

Personally, I'd like to visit every corner of the earth. But I don't know as I'll ever be able to accomplish that.

We don't compete with the Grammys. The Grammys compete with us. They have taken the stance that anybody who performs on 'The American Music Awards' cannot appear on 'The Grammys.' I don't agree with that philosophy.

Now that we've got computers, you can pump up anything that anybody ever uttered.