Barry Diller on baring his soul in new memoir, "Who Knew"

Last week, a few steps from Manhattan's Little Island, the people enjoying sunshine on the High Line took little notice of the man who helped create this corner of the world, the legendary businessman Barry Diller. "When you're up here, even though you're not up very high, you really are elevated, [with] a totally different perspective of the city," Diller said.Talk about different perspectives: At 83, Diller himself is now inviting people to take another look at him.

Next week he'll release his memoir, more than ten years in the making.In "Who Knew" he names plenty of names, tells wild stories, and bares his soul about things he says he'd vowed never to talk about in public.In his preface he writes, "When I was young, I was far too afraid.

I'm no longer that.And I'm too old to care."Afraid of what? "I was afraid of secrets being revealed," he said.

"I was afraid of, I thought I didn't qualify.I think, just afraid of revealing myself."Diller says he was in grade school when he first realized he might be gay.

"Eleven or twelve years old, or 13, I got on my bike, and I rode down to the Beverly Hills Public Library.And I looked for books on homosexuality.

And everything I read was, like, horrible.And I got on my bike and I rode home and thought, I'm a condemned person.

I mean, for a little kid, that's not great." He had his first sexual encounter at age 16.I asked, "Did you tell your friends? Did you tell anybody about it?""Of course not! Are you kidding? I didn't tell myself," Diller replied.

"I mean, I thought – oh, what did I think? I thought, Oh, I did that.I don't have to do it again.""I did this thing with a guy, but that's the end of it?" I asked.

"Yeah, I don't need to do that again," Diller said."And then a month later, I did.

And then I knew." But at the time, he thought it best to keep it a secret.He vowed never to lie about it, only to keep it quiet.

He writes that, through his life, his sexuality was like an "anvil...