Norman Lear accepted Variety’s Creative Conscience Award Tuesday night at the publication’s annual Showrunners Dinner. The award honors Lear for his work promoting important causes both inside and outside the entertainment industry.

Lear, who appears on the current cover of Variety, recently renewed his overall deal at Sony Pictures Television.

Speaking at the Showrunners Dinner at Eveleigh in West Hollywood, Lear revealed the secret to how he keeps on working at 97.

“It amazes me to hear me described as 97 years old and that in three years I cross 100. But here’s another absolute fact I’d like to tell you, and that is I’ve always believed — that laughter adds time to ones life,” he said.

The legendary TV producer has been bringing laughter into people’s homes for decades, whether it be with his classic sitcoms like “The Jeffersons” and “All in the Family,” or with his current Pop TV show “One Day at a Time.”

Lear paid tribute to his “ODAAT” creative partners Gloria Calderon Kellett and Mike Royce, his producing partner Brent Miller, as well as to all the other storytellers in the room for “giving the best of what life has to offer.”

“I have had such a good time in our industry working with the likes of all of you and I know it’s responsible for the way I feel at 97,” Lear said. “I couldn’t be more indebted to all of you for all of the pleasure you have brought me, to all of you who do comedy, to all of you who do drama, because caring and passion and laughter it’s all the same, feeling good about life and what life has to offer.”

The Showrunners Dinner was attended by a host of the industry’s top creative minds, many of whom are up for multiple awards at this Sunday’s Emmys.

Among the attendees were Craig Mazin (“Chernobyl”); Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones (“Black Mirror”); Tanya Saracho (“Vida”); Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter (“Riverdale”); Steven Canals and Our Lady J (“Pose”); Julie Plec (“Legacies”); David Mandel (“Veep”); Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle (“Pen15”); Carlton Cuse (“Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan”); Steve Levitan (“Modern Family”); Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin (“Star Trek: Discovery”); Matt Warburton (“Four Weddings and a Funeral”); Bruce Miller (“The Handmaid’s Tale”); Leslye Headland and Natasha Lyonne (“Russian Doll”); Sarah Treem (“The Affair”); Liz Tigelaar (“Little Fires Everywhere”); and Rob Crabbe and Ben Winston (“The Late Late Show”).