In large Victorian houses with many rooms and heavy doors, the occupants could be mysterious and exciting to one another in a way that those who live in rackety developments can never hope to be. Not even the lust of a Lord Byron could survive the fact of Levittown.

When anyone says to me, 'Can you keep a secret?' I say, 'Why should I, if you can't?'

It was a pity that movies and live TV left New York for Hollywood. London theater, movies, television - until (Britain's) money ran out - were always better than ours since the city was the political capital of the country, as well as the artistic and literary one. In L.A. we've always been slightly sealed off from real life. It's no accident that two of our most interesting directors, Woody Allen and Bob Altman, are more or less settled in the real world.

All in all, I would not have missed this century for the world.

Fifty percent of people won't vote, and fifty percent don't read newspapers. I hope it's the same fifty percent.

Until the rise of American advertising, it never occurred to anyone anywhere in the world that the teenager was a captive in a hostile world of adults.

The United States was founded by the brightest people in the country — and we haven't seen them since.