American high school students trail teenagers from 14 European and Asian countries in reading math and science. We're even trailing France.

In some ways England is more liberal than France but I also find it more intrusive. But when you go abroad you have to accept the ways of where you live. I have to respect that.

Being identified as a poet in France or Denmark or India one is greeted with gracious respect.

Before you I engage myself to serve my country with the devotion and the exemplary that this post demands. I understand responsibilities of the job and as such I give a republican salute to Nicolas Sarkozy who has led France for 5 years and who deserves all of our respect.

It is not really our country so much is the problem it's sort of the parasitic relationship that Canada and France and other countries have towards us.

France has a very important relationship with Germany. But that does not mean that we agree about everything or that two of our universities or companies are not going to compete.

The transatlantic relationship is vital for both our countries: France will remain a reliable ally of the United States. Nevertheless ally does not mean aligned.

For us sons of France political sentiment is a passion while for the Englishmen politics are a question of business.

France is not poetic she even feels in fact a congenital horror of poetry. Among the writers who use verse those whom she will always prefer are the most prosaic.

The United Nations will be at the heart of our international activities. France will assume its full responsibilities at the Security Council by putting its status at the service of peace respect for human rights and development.