Since my parents and my uncle had such a great influence in my life, I would like to add a few words about all three of them. My parents, as I said, had lost a child before I was born. That child was very bright. In a sense, they were hoping with me, ten years later, to correct fate, and they had the most extraordinary faith in what I could do: there was nothing I could not do. This sometimes took actually a rather harsh edge. When I finished high school I received the 'tres bien', which is an A, which was extremely rare at that time. It was reserved for very special cases and was the highest honour. When I told my father coming back home, that everything had gone well, and that I got an A. He said, "Fine. Let's think about the future." It was - somehow this had been "discounted" if you think in terms of the market. It was understood this would happen and so it didn't deserve much emphasis. I remember being disappointed, that somehow it was just so obvious I should do it. And it went on for a very long time. Sometimes I think of them as still pushing me. It's strange, but it is true. My uncle was very different. When he was a very old man and he always kept coming back to what he felt was the way I had disappointed him in the world. I will tell how he wanted me to go to the École Normale and how I left after two days. Over the years he would say, after conversation lagged, I went to see him, "How are your wife or children", then he would say, "Well, you know, I know you hate the question. I keep asking you, but please excuse me. I forget your answer because I don't understand it. Can you tell me why thirty-five years ago you didn't stay at the École Normale?" It was a profound wound for him. I had never, ever realised how deeply shaken he would remain all his life. Then one day, I went to see him and he didn't ask the question, and I felt he was getting towards the end of his life, that he was no longer interested in the world, only in his own ill-health. He felt that I had done everything wrong. He was afraid that I would encounter the most extraordinary disasters because I had done something so profoundly ill-suited. My parents never thought I could do anything wrong. That's the big difference.
