Hollywood comedy bigwig Judd Apatow put out a book recently titled Sick in the Head which contains conversations he’s had with people in show business (namely funny people) over the course of his long career.

One of the comedians featured in the book is David Letterman’s replacement: Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A.

The snippet below is a blurb from Colbert about prepping for his famed Washington Correspondents Dinner speech back in 2006, which found then-President George W. Bush as the butt.

It’s truly a beautiful anecdote that spells out why the United States is still the idol of free speech, humor, creativity, etc.:

Here’s the transcript, in case the Twitter photo is too crinkly or gray or something:

Stephen [Colbert]: You know, there’s a woman I get my coffee from every morning. She is not a native to our country, she wasn’t born here. And she said to me the week of that dinner, she said, “Stephen, you look so tired, why do you look so tired?” I go, “Well, Anna, I been working late after the show. I’m writing a script to get ready for the Correspondents’ Dinner. I’m going to perform for the president.” She said, “You perform in front of the president?” I said, “Yeah, I’ll be like five feet from him.” She goes, “But you’re a satirist. You’re a critic. You’re going to do your jokes right next to him?” And I said, “Yeah.” “She took my face in her hands and said, “This is a good country.”

By the way, if you’ve never seen Colbert’s speech, enjoy: