I had started by imitating a parrot, which is unusual, in that a parrot is supposed to imitate you. By taking the initiative you allow the parrot no alternative but to be itself, which proves again that attack is often the best defence.

The social sciences were for all those who had not yet decided what to do with their lives, and for all those whose premature frustrations led them into the sterile alleys of confrontation.

Marriage is like a three-speed gearbox - affection, friendship, love. It is not advisable to crash your gears and go right through to love straightaway. You need to ease your way through. The basis of love is respect, and that needs to be learned from affection and friendship.

There are experts in little things but there are no experts in big things. There are experts in this fact and that fact but there are no moral experts.

I can never forgive God for having invented the French

Sex is a conversation carried out by other means. If you get on well out of bed, half the problems of bed are solved.

Children are the only form of immortality that we can be sure of.