I remember in 1968 when we were in Cannes, in the festival, and we were supposed to be there 10 days, and the second day the festival collapsed because the French, you know, film-makers raised the red flag in the festival and ended the festival.
I lived in Paris for two years with my family. I would roam the streets of Paris during the day for a few hours in the subway, on the streets, and I listened to the French language, and I got a sense of the rhythm and the melody of the language.
One of the greatest joys in my life was giving a lecture in French at the College de France.
French horn can be very epic, and at the same time, very dark and moving.
Most correspondents came from the former colonial powers – there were British, French, and a lot of Italians, because there were a lot of Italian communities there. And of course there were a lot of Russians.
It is a curious fact that the word ‘essayist’ showed up in English before it existed in French.
Comedy is really my passion. I started out way before television doing sketch comedy with other women. Very much along the lines of, at the time it was ‘Sensible Footwear’, but now it’s ‘Smack The Pony’, ‘French And Saunders’, that kind of thing. That’s how I started out.
The French are true romantics. They feel the only difference between a man of forty and one of seventy is thirty years of experience.
Savannah is amazing with the town squares and the hanging moss and the French Colonial houses. It’s brutally romantic.
Who can doubt that between the English and the French, between the Scotch and the Irish, there are differences of character which have profoundly affected and still affect the course of history?
No, I’m not a French designer either. I’m from nowhere. I’m a European, old European is all I am.
I was as repelled by the French as I was attracted by their country.
I love magazines. I always read ‘Time,’ ‘Newsweek’ and ‘The Economist.’ When I get my hair cut, French ‘Vogue,’ French ‘Elle,’ ‘Paris Match’ – I read them all in 10 minutes.
The French don’t seek out alliances except when there are difficulties.
From what I’ve read, everyone has a claim on Merlin. Was he Scottish, Welsh, English or even French? All these countries have got a big claim on him and Camelot. That’s why the Arthurian legends are so popular – because they are such good stories.
There’s always something fishy about the French.
French cinema audiences usually don’t express anything. Certainly not satisfaction.
When I wrote ‘Barefoot in Paris,’ I wanted to make simple recipes that you could make at home that tasted like French classics.
I unfortunately don’t speak French, but my wife is now fluent in English, which really reflects rather badly on me.
We had common interests in the beauty of the French language. We both had a tremendous love of jazz. We shared dreams of getting married and having a family, living in the country, leading an idyllic life.
I’m always looking for a way to get some spice into my cooking but, generally, the French don’t like spicy food.
My father always wanted to be ‘Col-bear.’ He lived in the same town as his father, and his father didn’t like the idea of the name with the French pronunciation. So my father said to us, ‘Do what you want. You’re not going to offend anybody.’ And he was dead long before I made my decision.
That’s only in America. We don’t have French doors in France.
What Shakespeare was able to do in English he would certainly not have done in French.
I guess I wanted to leave America for awhile. It wasn’t that I wanted to become an expatriate, or just never come back, I needed some breathing room. I’d already been translating French poetry, I’d been to Paris once before and liked it very much, and so I just went.
My sisters like cooking at my place. It has a bit more room, and the food tastes a little bit better. A big pot of spaghetti and sauce, some warm French bread – works all the time. I think I’ve been eating pasta for 26 years.
Now, if you are like me – if you are like practically anybody in America – then you probably hold some negative opinions about the French, based upon movies, rumors, recent headlines, unfortunate run-ins with Parisian waiters, or… you know… all that unpleasantness surrounding the Vichy regime.
One thing I can say about the French language is that no one in the world loves their language as much as they do. It doesn’t matter if you’re close – it still sounds terrible to their ears.
It was announced as a French victory by the French Minister of War. I did not see any sign of victory but only the retreat of the French forces engaged in the battle.
Mondays I sleep. I go in at ten, do my lift, watch the game from the day before. Tuesday is off, but I go in, lift, watch film. Then I have French toast with my sister.
To understand Europe, you have to be a genius – or French.
The British and French governments have taken a strong stance against ‘extremist content’ online when addressing their approach to tackling extremism.
I think there’s a time and place to watch an independent film, or catch up on a French action film on your laptop, or Netflix it, or download it, or watch it on-demand. But I think we also have to maintain the sacredness of the movie theatre as church – especially with event screenings.
We were a family who had come from nothing and now we had respect from French people of all sorts.
German and English firms operate internationally, while French firms do not. The only place where they all have work is in China. Anybody can sell himself in China!
I am a Moroccan writer of French expression.
I speak English, Portuguese, and French. One day I’d love to learn Italian.
I think the French have a romantic cliche that Englishmen have great style, great music, irony and sense of humour. Well, sometimes cliches are true.
My French is still good. That’s a beautiful language and I’m happy to speak it.
You have to list all your special skills on a form when you get an agent. There’s fencing, stage combat, horse riding, motorbike riding, Spanish, French, German, whatever. I just ticked everything. I talk about 10 languages according to that form. I even ticked the extreme sports box.
Italian is the language of song. German is good for philosophy and English for poetry. French is best at precision; it has a rigour to it.
The funny thing in France is that writers are not allowed to retire, because the French government say you are still earning money from books you wrote 20 years ago.
Trinidad’s language is a fusion of English, African, and French, and so we have our own words and even our own dictionary. Steupse is a common local word, and it’s the onomatopoeic word for the sound people make to show disapproval, or to show they are vexed, when they suck their teeth together.
I would like to spend more time with Spanish poetry. I know French better than Spanish, but Spanish was my first language, and my father spoke it to us.
The liberation movement which I led in Algeria, the organization that I created to fight the French army, was at first a small movement of nothing at all. We were but some tens of people throughout Algeria, a territory that is five times the size of France.
You may hear from my fabulous accent that I’m French!
My biggest challenge is cooking traditional French dishes, which usually require very specific techniques and methods. That’s just not my style… I cook from the soul.
In Britain I’m sometimes regarded as a suspiciously Europeanized writer, who has this rather dubious French influence.
You know, I would like to ask to the other parts of Canada to respect the minority of the French Canadians.
My first restoration was on ‘Napoleon,’ trying to put the French version in with the English version, and it was most unsatisfactory.
There is rap music in all my films. In ‘La Vie des Morts,’ there is rap music too. It’s because I’m French, and when it appeared in 1978, it was so new, it set off my musical imagination.
Before the Second World War, L’Oreal in France was an active supporter of the French fascists. The cosmetic group’s founder Eugene Schueller was an active member of the ‘Cagoule’ group, committed to the violent overthrow of the Third Republic, and hosted meetings at Oreal headquarters.
When I need a word and do not find it in French, I select it from other tongues, and the reader has either to understand or translate me. Such is my fate.
My father is Jewish, and I look exactly like him… My mother is British, but she’s of French extraction.
I come from Yorkshire in England where we like to eat chip sandwiches – white bread, butter, tomato ketchup and big fat french fries cooked in beef dripping.
French ‘Vogue’ was always a photographer’s magazine.
My father’s really fluent in French, but I can’t speak at all. I actually took it twice in school already and failed both times!
Everything is entertainment; criticism is now entertainment and it seems that the French directors have woken up one day and suddenly realised that they were not backed up any more.
We Americans are mildly interested, of course, in reading about the discovery of radium by Madame Curie, but what we really yearn to know is the name of the uncommemorated French female who first mixed a sauce bearnaise.
