I was thinking something watching the three minutes silence on TV, as the picture switched from city to city around Europe.

There's always been a sense that America has been a safe place, not quite real, detached from all kinds of things that have been part of our life in Europe - bombings and invasion and so forth. All your wars have been foreign wars. There's been a barrier.

And now it's gone.

All our lives we've seen these films with New York being stomped by monsters or disasters, and the people running around like headless chickens. That's what you thought you were like, and naturally that's what we tended to think you must be like. But when the real thing happened it wasn't like that at all. The people kept their heads, and looked out for each other and kept their dignity.

You did OK.