David Letterman, 77, says ‘retirement is a myth’

David Letterman questioned what people do in retirement.

More than four decades in show business later, David Letterman isn’t ready to retire.

“Retirement is a myth,” the former late-night host said in an interview with GQ, published on Wednesday.

“Retirement is nonsense. You won’t retire. The human mechanism will not allow you to retire,” Letterman, 77, continued.

In response to the interviewer’s point that people do retire, Letterman said, “But what do they do? Sit there and wait for, give me the name of a show, ‘Judge Judy’ to come on?”

Letterman, the longest-serving late-night talk show host in American television history, explained that as long as he is healthy, he will still want to produce.

“And you will find ways to, once I stopped doing the show, it took me a couple of years to figure out that, oh, this is a completely different rhythm,” said Letterman, who left “The Late Show” show in 2015, after a 22-year run.

“And without the rhythm that you’re accustomed to, largely unsatisfying. So you got to find something that’s important to you,” he said.

Letterman went on to host “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction,” a talk show on Netflix that has run for five seasons since 2018.

Still, he’s unsure about how long he can continue working.

“I’m surprised that I’m still doing it at my age,” he told GQ. He recalled working on a Netflix show a few years ago and said the schedule they were on was “ridiculous.” Between shows, a stage manager approached him and told him, “I know you’re exhausted, but can you just sit up straight?” he recalled.

“And I just thought, well, maybe that’s a sign. Maybe that’s a sign,” he said.

Letterman isn’t the only entertainer who has spoken about the topic of retirement.

Jim Carrey, 62, recently came out of his acting retirement to star in “Sonic the Hedgehog 3.”

“I came back to this universe because, first of all, I get to play a genius, which is a bit of a stretch,” he told the Associated Press on Tuesday. “And I just, I bought a lot of stuff, and I need the money, frankly.”

In January, the Employee Benefit Research Institute surveyed 2,521 Americans ages 25 or older. Around half were workers, and the other half were retirees. The retirees reported a median retirement age of 62.

The transition from work to retirement can be challenging to navigate.

Dee Cascio, a counselor and retirement coach in Sterling, Virginia, recently told B-17 that the structure that work provides is hard to move away from.

“People think that this transition is a piece of cake, and it’s not,” she said. “It can feel like jumping off a cliff.”

Older Americans that B-17 spoke to also shared that their regrets about retirement include retiring too early and being financially unprepared.

A representative for Letterman did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent by B-17 outside regular hours.