"Death Valley [137 miles west of Vegas] has become a national park in the last few years. It's one of my favorite places in California. It's not a place you want to go in the summer. It's below sea level, a dry lake bed bigger than the state of Delaware. But from October to May, it's one of the most extraordinary places on earth. The color, the air, the wildlife, and the feeling of freedom and space are phenomenal. And it just nurtures the soul. It's where you have Zabriskie Point, a vista with canyons where you can hike. Artists Palette is another canyon. When you look into it, you see all these magnificent colors in the stone. They change with the sunlight toward the evening. It's hard not to look in any direction without a breathtaking view. For me, it's a deeply personal thing. It's one of my favorite places on earth."

ONE GREAT NIGHT IN LAS VEGAS

"The first time I went to Las Vegas was around 1966. I stopped there on a Greyhound bus from Los Angeles to New York just to get a bite to eat. I got off the bus downtown and went to the Golden Nugget near the bus station and started playing a nickel slot machine. I missed my bus, lost around $40, and had to pawn my watch on East Ohio Street for about $30. Then, I stayed up all night, playing nickel slots. It was just a revelation. I'd never seen or heard or could even imagine anything like Las Vegas. I finally broke one of those machines. I got a whole bag of money, about $50, and got back on a bus and completed the trip to New York, where I was doing a production of a Tennessee Williams play, Ten Blocks on the Camino Real, for PBS. In the play, I had a line to Tom Aldridge. He says, 'Do you have the time, sir?' And my line was, 'I'm sorry, I pawned my watch in a pawn shop on South Rampart Street in New Orleans, Louisiana.' And so I said to him, 'No, I'm sorry, I pawned my watch in a pawn shop on East Ohio Street in Las Vegas, Nevada.' What does that tell you about Las Vegas? Don't get off the bus."