I found Americans arrogant, Germans rude, Britishers selfish, Frenchs desperate, Chinese worried and my own nation stupid.

(…) il fallait séparer nos souffles, s’écarter, s’espacer, se lever, se dédoubler, et c’est toujours autant de perdu. Quand on a deux corps, il vient des moments où l’on est à moitié.- Est-ce que je...

Vivre est une maladie, dont le sommeil nous soulage toutes les seize heures ; c’est un palliatif : la mort est le remède.

That’s different. The French know that the English are superior to them and they’re appropriate about it. The Eastern Europeans on the other hand have no sense of place. All that communism has them thinking...

Il ne faut pas avoir peur de regarder les choses en face. La vie est le résultat de la malpropreté. Si la nature avait été bien tenue, la vie ne serait jamais apparue. La vie...

The French say you get hungry when you’re eating, and I get inspired when I’m working. It’s my engine

…because he knew that for other people their own social obligations took precedence of the death of afriend, and could put himself in her place by dint of his instinctivepoliteness.

WARMING UP TO the crèche turned out to be easy. Warming up to the other mothers there isn’t. I’m aware that Anglo-American-style instant bonding between women doesn’t happen in France. I’ve heard that female friendships...

Vénérons le chien. Le chien (quel drôle de bête!), a sa sueur sur sa langue et son sourire dans sa queue.

Chaque fois que je levais les yeux je voyais mon petit ami complètement gaga parce que j’étais une reine de beauté à la noix! T’étais un vrai gosse! Il a fallu que tu me transformes...

Le coeur humain, beau comme un sismographe.

Delight is délice, délit is a misdemeanour”Well, it’s bloody close…”Well, they often are….

Il semble, encore ajourd’hui, qu’elle n’aurait pu s’épanouir ailleurs que dans ce paysage étrange et fabuleux, hanté par les fantômes, mais protégé par les fées

Gay-Lussac was quick, lively, ingenious and profound, with great activity of mind and great facility of manipulation. I should place him at the head of all the living chemists in France.

The French expression ‘cul-de-sac’ describes what the Baudelaire orphans found when they reached the end of the dark hallway, and like all French expressions, it is most easily understood when you translate each French word...

Speak in French when you can’t think of the English for a thing–turn your toes out when you walk—And remember who you are!

I transform “Work” in its analytic meaning (the Work of Mourning, the Dream-Work) into the real “Work” – of writing.) for: the “Work” by which (it is said) we emerge from the great crises (love,...

Quel tempérament de feu a cette fille-là!

Max,’ I said, looking up at him, ‘I love the Russian heritage you guys are so willing to share, but I’m not so thrilled with the French.”What?’ His brows lowered. ‘We’re not French.”Great. So the...

On ne se souvient pas des jours, on se souvient des instants.

This medical view of an ideal male who was insulated from pathogens was inextricably bound up with a parallel discourse about the maintenance of strong ego boundaries, a psychic investment in one’s bodily peripheries that...

L’amour, bande de connards ! A quoi ça rime, sinon, de vivre ?

He had carefully avoided her out of the natural cowardice that characterizes the stronger sex.

Children learn to speak Male or Female the way they learn to speak English or French.

Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty hangdog look which announces that an Englishman...

I beg your pardon, sir, said the Frenchman. I am not a coloniser.Well, let’s talk Algeria then. Let’s talk about your culture and your celebrated writers.

Flambé – done beside a table covered in crisp starched linen in a French restaurant: a method to burn food and money simultaneously.

les points d’alimentationPowerpointsthat discuss power pointsand targets of softtargets Sweet Açaífell in love with GrapefruitPaint my skin with honeyactivate the points of powerpowerpointsque discuterles points d’alimentationet les objectifs de mouobjectifsacai douxtombé en amour avecpamplemoussePeindre ma...

Quand tu es dépendant des autres pour le moindre geste, il faut être pote avec la grande aiguille de l’horloge. La patience est un art qui s’apprend patiemment.

I thought the French were supposed to be so polite,” said Harriet indignantly.Maybe it can’t be proven statistically, but it’s a safe bet that any given American on his or her first trip to France...

En français.

You’re as strong as the Pont Neuf. You’ll live to bury us all!

It was always said that the big distinction between the French and the English is that the English are intelligent and the French are intellectual.

You’ll be reading the breakfast menu without me before you know it.”Hmm, maybe I don’t want to learn French

La fente, comme tracée au tire-ligne, cette superbe couture rabattue, qui s’épanouira un jour en pétales et, au fil du temps, deviendra le con de la femme, un pliage d’origami.

Un soir qu’ils étaient couchés l’un près de l’autre, comme elle lui demandait d’inventer un poème qui commencerait par je connais un beau pays, il s’exécuta sur-le-champ. Je connais un beau pays Il est de...

I am and will remain a tax resident in France and in this regard I will, like all French people, fulfill my fiscal obligations.

…What do you do with all your money?””Me and the French hoard gold.

On ne comprends rien à la civilisation moderne, si l’on n’admet pas d’abord qu’elle est une conspiration universelle contre toute espèce de vie intérieure.

Nous esperons que notre grand-père vivra encore longtemps.

Celui qui n’est pas passionné devient tout au plus un pédagogue; c’est toujours par l’intérieur qu’il faut aller aux choses, toujours, toujours en partant de la passion.

Je suis comme ça. Ou j’oublie tout de suite ou je n’oublie jamais.”Samuel BECKETT, En attendant GodotI’m like that. Either I forget right away or I never forget.

Isn’t this Michigan?”She laughed, “Oh oui monsieur, but the French came to Paradis more than cent ans…a hundred years ago.””And they still speak French?””But we are French.””Aren’t you American?”She shrugged, “No one truly conquers the...

The French approach to food is characteristic; they bring to their consideration of the table the same appreciation, respect, intelligence and lively interest that they have for the other arts, for painting, for literature, and...

are a sordid, low-budget French film. The sort you’d stumble across on TV at night. You know you’ll regret it in the morning, but you keep watching anyway.

The French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are.

Cheer up,’ said the captain’s son. ‘Life is long, and we are young.

bohemian Paris,” where French artists had gathered and cabaret songs had filled the air. In its heyday, Montmartre was one of the centers of popular entertainment, and its artists prided themselves on flying in the...

Almost anything is edible with a dab of French mustard on it.

I like junk food, French fries, hamburgers – I love it.