The English - A Portrait of a People by Jeremy Paxman (hier online bestellen)
Quotation:
I (=the author) once asked her (=Martha Gellhorn, an Am. war correspondent) why she had chosen to live
in England. It turned out to be for none of the usual reasons, nothing to do with the standard of the
theatre, the good airline connections, the relative quality of the media, or anything like that. She
loved England for its absolute indifference. 'I can go away, spend six months in the jungle, come back
and walk into a room, and people won't ask a single question about where I've been or what I've been
doing. They'll just say, "Lovely to see you. Have a drink."
I suggested it might be natural reticence or a wish not to intrude. But she called it 'the privacy of
indifference'.
'I think the English have a superiority complex. The Germans are always asking, "What do you think
of us?" They care, you see. The English don't give a damn. They're certain they're superior to everyone
else, so they couldn't care less what others think.'
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