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I just love France, I love French people, I love the French language, I love French food. I love their mentality. I just feel like it's me. I'm very French.

We know that the French are very different from the Americans in their satisfaction with life. They're much less satisfied. Americans are pretty high up there, while the French are quite low - the world champions in life satisfaction are actually the Danes.

I have American friends in France, and when I meet with them, they tell me about everything that is wrong with France. I think there is a general expat syndrome, which means that whatever country you are in, you are always missing your own country and always thinking that the country you live in is actually not as good as it could be.

The French hold onto their traditions. I was always so alienated in America. My work was this constant reaction to that.

I've always felt that Americans are very in the moment. There's not so much melancholia and mystery as there is in France. Everything must be understood. Everything must be analyzed.

I've always felt more at home in the UK than in France.

The French consider themselves the guardians of the world's culture and do not bother to hide the fact, which is annoying, but Paris is still where good Americans want to go when they die - and Brits, Russians, and Chinese as well, these days.

I do consider myself as being French, I suppose.

There is a certain dignity to being French.

I grew up in a Mauritian bubble in France... I had the feeling of not belonging, but still living with French culture.