And how would you like to be remembered?

"Show me Heaven. I have seen hell."

That’s the epitaph Hollywood actress Patricia Neal would like to be engraved in her tomb.

It’s one of the many gathered by the Larry King in his book Remember Me When I’m Gone, "an entertaining and eloquent collection of ‘last words’ from people in the arts, in politics, in sports, and in business, mostly still alive."

"Why would anyone want to write his own obituary or epitaph?" King asked his good friend and book agent Bill Adler. "It is an opportunity for well-known people from all walks of life to let the world know how they would like to be remembered," Adler told King. "Very few people have that opportunity." (An atheist, King also wrote another interesting book, The Power of Prayer, which chronicles how famous people pray and how prayer affects their lives.)

So how do you like to be remembered?

Here are more samples from King’s book:

• Alan Alda: Here Lies Anonymous – Our Greatest Author.

• Michael Caine: See you later, no hurry. Take care of yourself!

• Ted Danson: Be back in a minute.

• Judi Dench: She had a great sense of humour.

• Robert Evans: Living well is the best revenge!

• Milos Forman: I am speechless. Trust me.

• Jack Lemmon: Jack Lemmon. In.

• Tony Randall: See you tomorrow.

• Debbie Reynolds: Debbie Reynolds should be remembered for her sense of humor, love of her family, devotion to her work on her motion picture museum, and her love of performing.

• Arnold Schwarzenegger: I had fun!

• Joe Frazier: I want to be remembered as being a good guy, one who always tried to help others in need.

• Billie Jean King: Thank you and God Bless! I have had a great life, but I still have so much more to do!

• Jack Nicklaus: When I am gone, I’d like for them to say that in some small way I contributed to society. Most important, I’d like for them to say I was a good father, and that I certainly wasn’t a stranger to my kids and grandkids. They knew me and I knew them.

• Stephen King: He tried to be better than he was.

• Red Buttons: I never got a dinner and now I don’t need one.

• Sid Caesar: At least I made some people laugh!

• Tommy Hilfiger: An all-American classic designer who brought class to the masses.

• Calvin Klein: Calvin Klein by Eternity.

• Donald Trump: A man of great vision, who fulfilled many of his dreams, loved his family and was loyal to his friends.

• Hugh Hefner: I’d like to be remembered as someone who played some part in changing our hurtful and hypocritical views on sex – and had a lot of fun doing it.

• Maria Shriver: As a loving mom, wife, daughter, sister and friend.

• Liz Smith: Well, the great Dorothy Parker wanted, "Excuse My Dust!" I would have to change mine to "Excuse My Dirt!"

• Ted Turner: I have nothing more to say.

• Pat Boone: Pat Boone: Christian. Address for Eternity: Heaven.

• Art Garfunkel: Always with love, Art Garfunkel.

• Andy Williams: "Moon River." Thank God I didn’t record "Why Don’t We Do It in the Road."

• Yoko Ono: Imagine!

What about Larry King?

"I would like to be remembered as a kid from Brooklyn who probably would have preferred to become a first baseman or a pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, but who never made it.

"I am, of course, proudest of my kids and madly in love with my wife, Shawn.

"But above all, I would like to be remembered as a broadcaster who has perhaps interviewed more people than anyone in history, from kings and queens to presidents, from movie stars to legendary athletes, from writers to Nobel Prize winners, from saints to sinners. I have talked to them all. I am grateful to the listeners who have kept me going all these years, and I hope that 50 years from now when people talk about Larry King, they will say, ‘He did a hell of an interview!’"

I will end this All Souls’ Day piece by citing the epitaphs for three of my friends, one an incurable liar, the other a habitual late-comer and the third a rumor-monger.

• THE LIAR: Here lies T. He lies and lies and lies!

• THE LATE-COMER: Here lies the late M.

• THE RUMOR-MONGER (quoting Mark Twain): The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.

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