The Americans, of course, are quite dotty with hospitality.

Every day someone notices me and waves to me, or stops and speaks to me, or asks me for an autograph, or photographs me.

It is explained that all relationships require a little give and take. This is untrue. Any partnership demands that we give and give and give and at the last, as we flop into our graves exhausted, we are told that we didn't give enough.

My function in life was to render clear what was already blindingly conspicuous.

Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings, they did it by killing all those who opposed them. If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style.

I went out into the world when I was about 22. I wrote books and I illustrated books and did book covers, and I taught tap-dancing, and I was a model in the art school. I had no ability for any of those things, but what else could I do?

I never say 'No' to anything.