Down and Out in Paris and London.

I go to Paris, I go to London, I go to Rome, and I always say, 'There's no place like New York. It's the most exciting city in the world now. That's the way it is. That's it.'

The English language is like London: proudly barbaric yet deeply civilised, too, common yet royal, vulgar yet processional, sacred yet profane. Each sentence we produce, whether we know it or not, is a mongrel mouthful of Chaucerian, Shakespearean, Miltonic, Johnsonian, Dickensian and American. Military, naval, legal, corporate, criminal, jazz, rap and ghetto discourses are mingled at every turn. The French language, like Paris, has attempted, through its Academy, to retain its purity, to fight the advancing tides of Franglais and international prefabrication. English, by comparison, is a shameless whore.

Eighty percent of the street trees in Paris are London plane trees.

I always read everything on the desks of people I went to see in Moscow, London, Paris I found it quite useful.

We had a lot of emotional phone calls, with me calling Paris and Kylie calling me in London, ... But we're really pleased how it turned out. It was a huge moment for our family.