Europeans are much more serious than we are in America because they think that a good place to discuss intellectual matters is a beer party.

The Welsh people have a talent for acting that one does not find in the English. The English lack heart.

If one could only teach the English how to talk, and the Irish how to listen, society here would be quite civilized.

In fact, the best thing we could do on taxes for all Americans is to simplify the individual tax code. This will be a tough job, but members of both parties have expressed an interest in doing this, and I am prepared to join them.

The Vietnamese see their history as an unending series of struggles of resistance to aggression, by the Chinese, the Mongols, the Japanese, the French, and now the Americans.

A president can ask for reconciliation in the racial conflict that divides Americans. But reconciliation comes only from the hearts of people.

I think when the president of the United States calls for military action, he should do it for a united people, especially when the methods have been so cruel, so explicitly directed at Americans.

The truth is that the vast majority of Americans are good, fair, and just, and they want their country to reflect those ideals.

Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.

Humor is the first of the gifts to perish in a foreign tongue.

Americans play to win at all times. I wouldn’t give a hoot and hell for a man who lost and laughed. That’s why Americans have never lost nor ever lose a war.

Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right.

Sometimes, reading a blog, which I do infrequently, I see that generations of Americans have been wilfully crippled, and can no longer spell or write a sentence.

Everyone carries his own inch rule of taste, and amuses himself by applying it, triumphantly, wherever he travels.

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.

I think it’s an Irish thing. We don’t really care. We say it as we mean it, and you have to deal with it. The truth is the truth.

America is not just a country, it’s an idea, and real Americans are getting busy.

I don’t concern myself with award. I’d been to the party enough times to know it really didn’t matter.

Men are convinced of your arguments, your sincerity, and the seriousness of your efforts only by your death.

Americans adore me and will go on adoring me until I say something nice about them.

I was a little girl in World War II and I’m used to being freed by Americans.

Most women put off entertaining until the kids are grown.

If you pretend to be good, the world takes you very seriously. If you pretend to be bad, it doesn’t. Such is the astounding stupidity of optimism.

No intelligent black man or black woman in his or her right black mind wants white boys and white girls coming to their homes to marry their black sons and daughters.

While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.

Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets. The rich and the poor.

If you’re serious, you really understand that it’s important that you laugh as much as possible and admit that you’re the funniest person you ever met. You have to laugh. Admit that you’re funny. Otherwise, you die in solemnity.

Americans are rising to the tasks of history, and they expect the same of us.

We don’t believe in planners and deciders making the decisions on behalf of Americans.

There are only two occasions when Americans respect privacy, especially in Presidents. Those are prayer and fishing.

When good Americans die they go to Paris.

At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.

The English are predisposed to pride, the French to vanity.

I don’t know why they gave me a knighthood – though it’s very nice of them – but I only ever use the title in the U.S. The Americans insist on it and get offended if I don’t.

When it comes to the qualifications that we should demand of our president, to start with, we need someone who will take the job seriously.

Spaniards were condemned for appeasing terrorism by voting for withdrawing troops from Iraq in the absence of U.N. authorization – that is, for taking a stand rather like that of 70 percent of Americans, who called for the U.N. to take the leading role in Iraq.

Even though I’m known as a pop musician, I have a seriousness about what I do.

The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.

A large majority of Americans believe that the U.N., not the U.S., should take the lead in working with Iraqis to transfer authentic sovereignty as well as in economic reconstruction and maintaining civic order.

The prescription for endless war poses a far greater danger to Americans than perceived enemies do, for reasons the terrorist organisations understand very well.

This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

I was in Europe and it was at this stage that I fell in love with Americans in uniform. And I continue to have that love affair.

Americans love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle.

I don’t go to parties in general.

The problem with Yanks is they are wimps.

I think you could ask 10 English people the same question about class and get a very different answer.

Sometimes I’ve been to a party where no one spoke to me for a whole evening. The men, frightened by their wives or sweeties, would give me a wide berth. And the ladies would gang up in a corner to discuss my dangerous character.

There’s very little dislike of Americans in the world, shown by repeated polls, and the dissatisfaction – that is, the hatred and the anger – they come from acceptance of American values, not a rejection of them, and recognition that they’re rejected by the U.S. government and by U.S. elites, which does lead to hatred and anger.

I’m married to an Italian woman, and I used to love cooking Italian at home, because it’s one-pot cooking. But my wife does not approve of my Italian cooking.

We sold ‚Seinfeld‘ all over the world but it was a very specific kind of show. In some countries it went down really well, in others they hated it.

I’m very, very serious – I’m serious enough not to take myself too seriously. That means I can be completely wedded to the moment. But when I leave that moment, I want to be completely wedded to the next moment.

You can be a little ungrammatical if you come from the right part of the country.

Tobacco exports should be expanded aggressively because Americans are smoking less.

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.

I don’t need you to be funny. I don’t want to be entertained.

September 11 shocked many Americans into an awareness that they had better pay much closer attention to what the U.S. government does in the world and how it is perceived. Many issues have been opened for discussion that were not on the agenda before. That’s all to the good.

Both times I was in India, I could not get people to listen to each other. I had to literally tell people to listen to each other and tell them that they can’t get creative and find alternate solutions if they don’t listen to each other. There’s a lot of arguing and justifying.

To be frank, it sometimes seems that the American idea of freedom has more to do with my freedom to do what I want than your freedom to do what you want. I think that, in Europe, we’re probably better at understanding how to balance those competing claims, though not a lot.

I often look ridiculous in Japan. There’s really no way to eat in Japan, particularly kaiseki in a traditional ryokan, without offending the Japanese horribly. Every gesture, every movement is just so atrociously wrong, and the more I try, the more hilarious it is.

I know that there are millions of Americans who are content with their health care coverage – they like their plan and, most importantly, they value their relationship with their doctor.

Hostesses who entertain much must make up their parties as ministers make up their cabinets, on grounds other than personal liking.