christopher hitchens, one of our favorite guests on this program, the late great christopher hitchens was your babysitter. >> (laughs) yeah, yeah. >> jon: how did that-- first of all, how are you still alive? (laughter) second of all-- >> i know, my blood is running with scotch. (laughter) he was amazing. >> jon: was he just a neighbor and your folks won't over there and said, like, "hey, dude, can could you watch our kids?" >> "hold our baby, you look trustworthy." (laughter). >> jon: exactly. was your family friends? >> yes, they were all journalists together. there's this great group of investigative journalists and sadly they're dying out slowly but he was one of the greatest and i was very lucky to know him. (cheers and applause). >> jon: we used to love having him on the show. and i was always amazed at his breadth of recall because he had-- >> right, i know, one would think there wouldn't be much recall. (laughter). >> jon: if i get let's say four hours of sleep i can't remember when think birthday is but this guy-- >> i know! >> jon: i always wondered if you pickle your brain-

. >> rose: we continue with appreciation of christopher hitchens with his widow carol blue and his editor and friend gray don carter. >> a number of young people, people in their 20s, mid-20s who really attached themselves to christopher, he hit something in them that hunter thompson had done in a generation before. he was very much a standard bearer for a younger generation of, you know, sort of armchair fire brands and he was the real thing and i think they admired him for it and sort of worshipped him. >> i think he was very, very stoic and he never really complained. he must have been in excruciating pain after the proton radiation, which actually worked. because he would try to swallow or eat something and he would kind of cry out. and that tells me he was really in agony. but actually, eventually, that cleared and we had a wonderful 20 course meal at the waiverly inn with martin. >> rose: editors from the "economist," graydon carter and carol blue when we continue. captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. 6-. >> rose: tonig

one of his first acts was to hire christopher hitchens as a columnist in. he has written the forward to "morealty." and carol blue is a journalist andhristher hitchens' dow she wrote the afterward to mortality which ends "at any time i can pursue our library or his notes and rediscover and recover him what what i do, when i do i hear him and he has the last word." time after time christopher has the last word. i'm pleased to have carol and graydon here is it painful to see these kinds of things to read the brilliance of christopher and remind you of the glorious life you had together and this glorious man? >> it is hard. it's also kind of exhilarating because there was -- there's nobody like him, was nobody like him. so it's a reminder of hauer you diet and charming and well spoken he was. and inciteful. but it's sad, it's hard to watch. i don't know if you felt that way, graydon. >> well, when you see clips of chistopher? his prime yo realized whehe was alive how alive he was when he was alive and there's very few people who command the moment the way chris

laughter] >> can you tell your favorite story about, you're the a very good friend of the late christopher hitchens. >> oh, it's kind of -- it's actually very strange for me still to come to -- >> washington. >> -- washington, um, and have him not here. because, you know, every time i would come here, i would stay with him. >> yeah. >> and, you know, it's, it's a big, it's a big hole in the world. um, i mean, i just tell the story about the silly games. we used to play all these game cans. >> right. >> i invented the clean ones, and martin amos invented the dirty ones. [laughter] .. >> a farewell to weapons. >> mystery zhivago, was it? >> yes. [laughter] >> for whom the bell rings. there are lots of these -- kobe dick. a.k.a. moby wreck. or blueberry fin. anyway, he invented hysterical sex where you replace the word love in the title with the phrase hysterical sex which gives you hysterical sex as the title of cholera. [laughter] >> all you need is hysterical sex. in many splintered thing. >> does that make it into the book? did you end -- talk about -- about becoming american, settling in this cou