The TV talk show host grew up in Indianapolis and spent decades living in cities such as New York City during his lengthy TV career which included presenting the Late Show with David Letterman, but moved home after stepping down from the job and believes he has discovered his real self.
"In show business, I find that I have pretended to be someone I'm truly not," he told GQ.
"In my life here in Indiana and at my home with my family, I am probably the person I actually am. And I regret that they don't kind of cross at any point."
When asked if he thought being in the entertainment industry made him a "worse person", he replied: "Yes. You're exactly right. And I don't know, maybe it's only because I went through show business."
"I got that out of my system eventually that I can concentrate on being a better person and probably couldn't have reached this point if I had not gone through the exercise of trying to succeed at show business."
He added: "I just feel like personally, I have greater humanity than I did when I was in show business.
"It was all single-minded and great pressure, real unimagined, and I felt like it's all on me, and it's all on me, and that it was all nonsense.Â
"All I cared about was television, one hour of television that I was responsible for, for 30 years. That's all I cared about.
"Everything fell apart, went away. I didn't even know if it was falling apart or not. And now I have the energy and the broader focus to recognise humanity has other fulfilling pursuits."
Since walking away from late night TV, Letterman has been hosting a series called My Next Guest Needs No Introduction for Netflix.
"I'm surprised that I'm still doing it at my age. On the other hand, I still get a kick out of what we're doing. So what does that mean? I don't know."
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