Oprah Talks to Barbara Walters

Oprah: You always get the best seat.

Barbara: That may change, and that's okay.

Oprah: Wait a minute, that won't change! You're Barbara Walters!

Barbara: Do you think to yourself, "I'm Oprah?"

Oprah: No.

Barbara: So I don't think, "I'm Barbara Walters."

Oprah: When I see my image on a magazine cover or hear people talk about me, I try to imagine what they see.

Barbara: We've known each other for a long time, so we can talk about this. You're extraordinary. Look at the lives of people you've changed, the schools, your work in Africa. Plus you're funny and you're cute and you're sexy.

Oprah: But I don't think about it like that.

Barbara: You want to know what people think of you? I think you're the most remarkable woman I know.

Oprah: Thank you, Barbara.

Barbara: I don't do what you do. I have not changed the world.

Oprah: But you're Barbara Walters!

Barbara: But I don't see myself as "Barbara Walters."

Oprah: What does being "Barbara Walters" mean?

Barbara: Sometimes it's okay—and sometimes I can't drive. Most of the time when I look back on what I've done, I think, "Did I do that?" And you know what I say to myself? "Why didn't I enjoy it more? Was I working too hard to see it?"

Oprah: Because you were just going from one plane to the next.

Barbara: And worrying about the shows and getting them on the air—and then thinking, "Was it right?" What I'm trying to do now, before it's too late, is to finally smell the roses. I know it's a cliché, but I want to enjoy it. I want to get rid of the alarm clock every day. I've done enough.

Oprah: What you just said in that moment changed me. That resonates with me to the core, big-time. I got it. I'm trying not to cry. Everybody always ends up crying in your interviews.

Barbara: Time is what it's all about. Look at all those pictures in the hallway. Look at what I accomplished. Yet I was always onto the next thing.


Oprah: Wow, Barbara. That was the most powerful insight you could have given me.

Barbara: Good. Then maybe I've changed someone's life.