​Jerry Seinfeld: "A laugh is such a pure thing"

"I was then, yes. I didn't need to come down from that flying saucer."

"Most people don't want to."

"No, they don't."

"Why do you think you did?"

"I wasn't a 20-something that suddenly hit it big," Seinfeld said. "I knew a little bit of life, you know? I don't wanna be spared the grime. The griminess is what I like. I felt like it's what made me good."

"Is this something you want your kids to do?"

"My daughter could do it. She could. I don't think she will. But she's got it somehow ... the first I saw that, 'Wow, this is genetic!'"

Seinfeld and his wife, Jessica, have three children. Sascha, the oldest, is now 14.

Mason asked, "Have you tried to give her any advice?"

"Yeah. It's like being Thor. They give you the hammer. It's hard to just leave it there."

"You want her to pick up the hammer?"

"Yeah, pick up the hammer!"

Jerry Seinfeld is still wielding his hammer -- and he has no plans to put it down.

"Are you still driven to do this?" Mason asked.

"Yes," he replied. "That has not gone away. To me every joke is like a cool thing that didn't exist in the world before you made it. For me, at this point in my life, I just want to find as many bits as I can before I'm dead."

CBS News

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