Americans have an abiding belief in their ability to control reality by purely material means... airline insurance replaces the fear of death with the comforting prospect of cash.

San Francisco is perhaps the most European of all American cities

Intelligent and alert, wistful but enthusiastic, frank yet tactful, assured without conceit and tender without sentimentality.

I have the worst ear for criticism, even when I have created a stage set I like, I always hear the woman in the back of the dress circle, who says she doesn't like blue.

[He stared into the camera] like some sort of an animal gazing from across the back of its sty. (On Winston Churchill)

The truly fashionable are beyond fashion.

All I want is the best of everything and there's very little of that left.