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Americans are uneasy with their possessions, guilty about power, all of which is difficult for Europeans to perceive because they are themselves so truly materialistic, so versed in the uses of power.

Let's be careful when we start comparing American to European tolerance because there isn't necessarily a lot of European tolerance.

Americans think that they have a history, but it's nothing compared to Europe.

Europeans have it better than the Americans. The Americans work too hard. The balance is out of whack. Europe's hung onto a little bit more of living a life and then working as well.

This is due partly to the fact that Americans are much better fed than Europeans, and partly to the undeveloped resources of a new country, but more largely to our climate, which acts as a constant stimulus.

I decided that Europeans and Americans are like men and women: they understand each other worse, and it matters less, than either of them suppose.

Americans are from Mars, Europeans are from Venus: they agree on little and understand each other less and less.

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 wish Americans thought more like Europeans when it comes to money and work. They take time off, they do what they love. We think work is the most valued commodity. Really the most valued commodity is time.

Americans are people who prefer the Continent to their own country, but refuse to learn its languages.