Conan O'Brien: Quotes from tonight's '60 Minutes' interview

CBS’ 60 Minutes is currently airing its much-hyped interview with Conan O’Brien, in which he talks for the first time about his not-so-pleasant exit from NBC and The Tonight Show. Not surprisingly, O’Brien describes the situation like “a marriage breaking up suddenly, violently, quickly.” Read on for a few quotes from the 60 Minutes segment, and be sure to come back to EW.com later tonight for a more in-depth look at the interview. (UPDATE: Click over to see Dan Snierson’s take on Conan O’Brien’s 60 Minutes interview.)

STEVE KROFT: You must have been miserable for the last couple of months?

CONAN O’BRIEN: I went through some stuff. And I got very depressed at times. It was like a marriage breaking up suddenly, violently, quickly. And I was just trying to figure out what happened. When we started putting this tour together, I started to feel better almost immediately. And then this there is this, there is almost no better antidote to what I’ve just been through than to do this every night.

SK: Was it in the back of your mind that look, if I don’t do that well, they can just pop Leno back in?

CO: I’m a paranoid person. And I think — I’m the kind of person that can come up with lots of negative scenarios. But I remembered thinking that seemed like — that was a stretch even for me.

—-

CO: It just felt like the tone went very quickly from, “Take your time, we understand this is a tough decision,” to — (SNAPS HIS FINGERS) you know, “Let’s go.” and that probably helped me a little bit feel like, “You know what? This environment doesn’t feel right and I’ve been with these people a long time. And I don’t like– I really don’t like the way this is going. And when it started to get toxic and I started to feel that I’m not sure these– people even really want me here. Let’s just — let’s just — I can’t do it.