Everything I am going to say to you is the child of a conversation. [...] That is the aspect of conversation that particularly excites me: how conversation changes the way you see the world, and even changes the world.

When will we make the same breakthroughs in the way we treat each other as we have made in technology?

The Renaissance… was based on a new idea of the importance of the individual. But this was a fragile foundation, because individuals depended on constant applause and admiration to sustain them. There is a shortage of applause in the world, and there is not enough respect to go around.

A dream is what makes people love life even when it is painful.

The kind of conversation I like is one in which you are prepared to emerge a slightly different person.

Everything I am going to say to you is the child of a conversation. [...] That is the aspect of conversation that particularly excites me: how conversation changes the way you see the world, and even changes the world.

The French have made conversation their claim to civilisation.