Life can’t be all bad if Mel Brooks is still giving interviews.

The director of The Producers and Blazing Saddles turned 97 today and is still sharp as ever. In an interview in the current issue of the Atlantic, he talked to Judd Apatow about his life and career in entertainment.

Some of the lines he uses will be familiar if you’ve watched his interviews on talk shows over the decades. (One of the most laugh-inducing ways to spend your time online is going through YouTube clips of his late-night TV appearances.) But it’s fascinating to hear from someone who is truly excellent at what he does, even when the thing he does is make jokes.

Here’s what Brooks said he has learned over his 97 years of life so far:

You just can’t spout at the mouth. There is a thing called manners, which is very hard to understand why they invented this thing that held you back. It held me back. You can’t live a real life if you’re just a bunch of firecrackers going off. You got to play ball with the universe.

He still stands by Blazing Saddles (which I just rewatched a few days ago; it’s funny as ever). When people say, “You couldn’t make that movie today,” he commonly replies, “You couldn’t make that movie then.” He told Apatow what he thinks the comedian’s job is:

The comedian has always been the court jester. He’s always, You got it wrong, your majesty; you got that one wrong. He’s got to whisper in the king’s ear when the king gets off on the wrong track. We have a good job to do.

He served in the military at the very end of World War II, on a team that defused bombs and mines. He told an incredible story about his service:

I got over in February 1945, and the war was over a few months later—March, April, May, and I was home. So I was lucky. But I defused a lot of booby traps, a lot of mines. One good thing was I got my training at a farmhouse in Normandy. And there was a little kid with a bicycle, and he fell in love with me because I gave him chewing gum and chocolate, and he’d go “Private Mel, Private Mel!” He’d just follow me on his tricycle. Sweet little French kid. . . .

Years later when we made The Elephant Man, we had a 20-day break because we were going to a location in London, and the writers had roughly 20 days where we could rewrite. I said, “How would you guys like to see where I was stationed?” So we took the ferry and then hired a car in Paris, and we went to Normandy. I knocked on the door of the farmhouse. And the door opened: a bear of a man with a great big black beard. Scary guy. “Que voulez-vous? ” “What do you want?” And he said, “Un moment, un moment.” “One minute.” [Gasps] “Ah, Private Mel!” he shouted. I said, “Oh my God. You were that little—” “Yes! Je suis l’enfant.” “I was the little boy.” He was a monster. He was a big, beautiful guy. And it was a great afternoon.

Those are just a few slices of the interview; read the whole thing here. And watch a Mel Brooks movie to celebrate his birthday today.