We have very primitive emotions,” he said . “It's impossible not to be competitive. Spoils everything, though.

The hard part about writing a novel is finishing it.

Everything is on such a clear financial basis in France. It is the simplest country to live in. No one makes things complicated by becoming your friend for any obscure reason. If you want people to like you you have only to spend a little money. I spent a little money and the waiter liked me. He appreciated my valuable qualities. He would be glad to see me, and would want me at his table. It would be a sincere liking because it would have a sound basis. I was back in France.

You love a lot of things if you live around them, but there isn't any woman and there isn't any horse, nor any before nor any after, that is as lovely as a great airplane.

Clearly I miss Him, having been brought up in religion. But now a man must be responsible to himself.

Creation's probably overrated. After all, God made the world in only six days and rested on the seventh.

But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.