I don't want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying. I don't want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen; I want to live on in my apartment.

The joke about immortality also appears in On Being Funny (1975) | In an interview in Rolling Stone magazine from April 9, 1987, Allen said: "Someone once asked me if my dream was to live on in the hearts of people, and I said I would prefer to live on in my apartment."