Quotes That Define Alex Trebek’s Legacy
"We’ll take things one step at a time, one day at a time.”
After over a year and a half battle with Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer (where in year 1 he had an 18% survival rate) beloved game show host Alex Trebek died at the age of 80 on November 8, 2020. He spent 37 years hosting Jeopardy! and his last day filming new shows in the studio was October 29, 2020. That’s right — he filmed new episodes ten days before he died. Nothing, not even cancer, was going to keep Alex from doing what he loved to do.
Alex’s fanbase is like no other. Throughout his career, he’s garnered admiration across generations. Many contestants on the show have shared with Alex that they grew up watching Jeopardy! with their parents and grandparents on the couch, inviting his friendly face into their living room every night. Millions across the country are deeply saddened by the loss of this selfless game show host, husband and father. We’re left with his legacy and his words — here are quotes that Alex has shared in his new memoir and interviews on: his cancer diagnosis, courage, cursing, a simple life and more.
On publicly sharing his cancer diagnosis
“At first, I was reluctant to share this news with the world. Basically, I’m a private person, but ultimately, I decided to do so because I wanted to stay ahead of the tabloids. I didn’t want them printing or manufacturing all kinds of crap. But upon making the announcement, I quickly discovered there are millions of people out there who seem to care and who feel I have played an important part in their lives,” he wrote in his memoir The Answer Is…: Reflections of My Life.
On a simple life
“My life is not particularly exciting. I’m the typical product of my generation: a hardworking breadwinner who looks after his family; does all the repairs he can around the house; enjoys watching television; and thinks a simple dinner of fried chicken, broccoli and rice is just fine, thank you very much,” he shared in his book. “I’ve shown up to work at the same job for thirty-six years and have lived in the same house for thirty years. I respect and like my colleagues and have a family that I dearly love.”
On courage
In his memoir Alex stated, “Of the thousands of letters, texts and emails I’ve received since announcing my diagnosis, many of them have mentioned my courage. But that’s not the way I look at courage. Courage is a conscious decision. You do it in a dangerous situation, when you have a choice. Here, there’s no choice. I’ve been diagnosed with a disease that is probably going to kill me. And probably sooner than later. So courage does not enter into it.”
On quality of life
In an interview with the New York Times from July 2020, Alex recalled, “Yesterday morning my wife came to me and said, ‘How are you feeling?’ And I said, ‘I feel like I want to die.’ It was that bad,” he said. “There comes a time where you have to make a decision as to whether you want to continue with such a low quality of life, or whether you want to just ease yourself into the next level. It doesn’t bother me in the least.”
On cursing
“At this point in my career, I had the world by the tail. I was good at my job. I didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, didn’t do drugs. There were no big negatives associated with me. And that caused problems, because it held me back from becoming one of the guys, if you will -- one of the group,” he said in his book. “People can be suspicious of someone who’s so chaste. They’re afraid to let their guard down and be themselves for fear they’ll be judged. I needed a vice. I started cursing, or to be more precise, injecting curse words into my conversations. But it didn’t help me become one of the guys. It just made me look like a jerk. My bad.”
On luck
“[Malcom] Gladwell’s thesis is that everyone considered a master in their field has most likely logged ten thousand hours. However, just because you’ve put in your ten thousand hours doesn’t guarantee you will ever be considered. It doesn’t guarantee that your talent will be seen and acknowledged by others. Those ten thousand hours don’t guarantee you an opportunity. That has a lot to do with timing. Yes, hard work and experience are essential. But so is timing. And luck. Don’t ever discount the importance of luck in terms of determining your opportunities and your future,” Alex wrote in his book.
On a soul mate
Also from his memoir: “With Jean it just happened. Sometimes you know. Sometimes you look at something, you look at someone, and you know. I mean, you’ve heard stories of people who meet and decide within half an hour, ‘I knew this was going to be the person I’d end up with.’ And with Jeanie, that’s how it was. I wasn’t looking for love. But with Jean, I recognized at a gut level that here was someone who was going to complete me as a human being.”
On the strategy of ‘Jeopardy!’
Talking about the strategy of the game, Alex told Vulture in a 2018 interview, “What bothers me is when contestants jump all over the board even after the Daily Doubles have been dealt with. Why are they doing that? They’re doing themselves a disservice. When the show’s writers construct categories they do it so that there’s a flow in terms of difficulty, and if you jump to the bottom of the category you may get a clue that would be easier to understand if you’d begun at the top of the category and saw how the clues worked. I like there to be order on the show, but as the impartial host I accept disorder."
On sympathy votes
“Last year, shortly after I announced my cancer diagnosis, I was notified that the Daughters of the American Revolution had chosen me for their Americanism Medal, which is presented to an American not born in this country. When I received the letter informing me of this honor, my initial reaction was 'No way. It’s not going to happen,” Alex stated in his book. “I’m not a big fan of sympathy votes, and I thought the DAR was being unusually generous and very sympathetic toward me because of my health condition. But then I reread the letter, and I noticed it was postmarked five days before I had made my announcement. Sympathy was no longer a factor. I said, ‘I will accept. Perhaps I even deserve this award.’”
On fatherhood
“The most challenging thing about fatherhood is that it introduced an element of fear into my life. When you’re a bachelor, you do all kinds of dumb, daredevil things. You don’t fear for your life too much. You don’t worry about anything. But when you’re married and have a family, you worry. If they go to school, you worry. If they’re a little later to meet you, you worry. If they’re not where they’re supposed to be, you worry. And it changes your whole perspective on things that are important to you,” he wrote in his book.
On dying
“I’m not afraid of dying. I’ve lived a good life, a full life, and I’m nearing the end of that life…if it happens, why should I be afraid of that. One thing they’re not going to say at my funeral, as a part of a eulogy, is ‘He was taken from us too soon,’” he told CTV News.
On politics
“The truth is, I’m an independent. I’ve voted for Republicans, and I’ve voted for Democrats. I vote for the person I feel is best suited to deal with the problems at that time. What I look for in a politician is someone who cares about the people. All the people. Not just well-off people like me. I don’t see it as liberalism or conservatism," Alex wrote. "Unfortunately, in modern politics it has to be one or the other. Thanks in great part to twenty-four-hour cable news and social media, modern politics pits us against one another. It forces us to choose a side and has convinced us that our side is right and the other is wrong. If you don’t agree with me, you are my enemy. There is no room for compromise. And that’s unfortunate."
On egos
“I try to show that gratitude [to the fans] as much as possible. To me, it is not optional. I see it as a requirement of my job. I’ve always believed that about my work in show business. If I accept a job, I will do it to the best of my ability. Even if I wake up one day and don’t feel like doing it,” Alex said in his book. “I believe that should be the way all people should handle themselves with regard to work. If you don’t want to do interviews, if you don’t want to sign autographs, don’t accept the job, but once you do accept it, you owe people your best performance, your best effort. So get past your ego and just be there for the people. I don’t consider it a big deal.”
On his wife Jeanie through his battle with cancer
At an interview in his home in July 2020 with Good Morning America, Alex said: “Jeanie says, ‘You’re not a burden’. She’s a saint. She has so much goodness in her that she is always giving out. Always putting out to help me get over difficult moments -- and there have been some difficult moments. I’m just in awe of the way she handles it.”
On toughness
From his memoir: “Interestingly, the longer I’ve lived with the cancer, the more my definition of toughness has changed. I used to think not crying meant you were tough. Now I think crying means you’re tough. It means you’re strong enough to be honest and vulnerable. It means you’re not pretending. And not pretending, being willing to let your guard down and show people how you truly feel and admit that you’re a wuss, is one of the toughest things a person can do.”
On his love for 'Jeopardy!'
“Jeopardy! invigorates me. It’s the strangest thing now with cancer: there are days when I’m just a basket case before we tape. I can barely walk to the production meeting. But when Johnny introduces me and I get out onstage, it all changes suddenly. I’m myself again. I feel good. One taping day early in my treatment, my stomach cramps got so bad that I was on the floor writhing in pain,” Alex described in his book. “My pain level went from a three to an eleven. And it happened three or four times that day. I finished taping one of the shows and just made it back to my dressing room before collapsing and crying from the pain. I had fifteen minutes before the next show. I really don’t understand how that happens. I don’t have an explanation for it, but it happens. And thank God it does. No matter how I feel before the show, when I get out there it’s all forgotten because there’s a show to be done. Work to do.”
On his legacy
Alex told ET in May 2019 that he wanted to be remembered as “Just as a good guy, a nice man. Somebody that you looked at on television on a daily basis and said, ‘Hey, you know what, I like him.’”
On what might be his last days
Alex concluded in his book: “With the coronavirus, we can’t go out to eat, we can’t go out to public places, even the park next door has limited its use. Here I am wanting to enjoy what might be the last of my days, and, what, I’m supposed to just stay at home and sit in a chair and stare into space? Actually, that doesn’t sound too bad. Except instead of a chair, I’ll sit on the swing out in the yard. Yep, I’ll be perfectly content if that’s how my story ends: sitting on the swing with the woman I love, my soul mate, and our two wonderful children nearby. I’ll sit there for a while and then maybe the four of us will go for a walk, each day trying to walk a little farther than the last. We’ll take things one step at a time, one day at a time.”