Art Buchwald Faces Death

March 12, 2006 — -- Art Buchwald is best-known for his razor-sharp columns published in more than 300 newspapers. And now, the 80-year-old author is scripting his final days. Refusing dialysis, Buchwald has decided it's time to die, and he now lies in a bed in a Washington hospice.

Art Buchwald: It was a tough decision, because you're affecting other people -- you know, yourself, you're affecting your family. But when I made it, I was relieved. It was over. The decision was made. The only part of it that I don't understand and nobody else understands is why I'm still here. Now you know, it's a no-no. You're not supposed to talk about death. You're not to talk about where you're going. Yet everybody that's listening to this show knows they've got to go. And so it shouldn't be a secret, it shouldn't be banned. It should be a good thing. At least, you know, the way you go, I can't predict that, but you don't have to make it a terrible thing.

I'm having the best time of my life. I mean, wouldn't you? To be sitting here and everybody thinks you're a wonderful person and you can't take it all because, first of all, you know, you're starting to feel like John Glenn. You know?

The big question that keeps coming up all the time when anybody, an interviewer, talks to me is: Do I believe in God? The answer is I believe in God, but I'm not too certain that the people that are telling me, "It's God's will," are the ones I want to listen to.

I've found a way that not a lot of people have to make other people laugh. And I'm proud, hope that I can be remembered for that -- because everybody wants to be remembered for something when they go.

Well, I enjoyed talking to you. And I hope I see you next week and the week after and the next month. And we'll say, "Something's wrong with the camera; he's still going."