And the questions they asked me! They wanted to know what did I think of America?
And o' this and o' that that I'd no had the chance tae see.

It was a while later before I came to understand that they were joking wi' themselves as well as wi' me.

I've learned, since then, that American reporters, and especially those that meet the ships that come in to New York, have had cause to form impressions of their ain of a gude many famous folk that would no be sae flattering to those same folk as what they usually see written aboot themselves.
Some of my best friends in America are those same reporters.

They've been good tae me, and I've tried to be fair wi' them.

The American press is an institution that seems strange to a Briton, but to an artist it's a blessing.