The Burtons get romantic across from Big Ben.

Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart attending funeral services for Walter Huston on April 11, 1950.

Piotr Tchaikovsky, on the balcony to have a smoke, and possibly deep in the composition of one of his less jolly pieces, glares at the photographer.

In 2009, a panel of auto designers anointed the Citroën DS “the most beautiful car of all time,” over Ferraris, Jaguars, and Lamborghinis. It's certainly an arguable proposition, although the Jaguar E Type comes close.

Pope John Paul II in New York, 1979. I was living there at the time. I took a break from the menial job I had then, handing out risqué leaflets to passersby, to go see JPII at St. Patrick's Cathedral, thereby progressing from the ridiculous to the sublime.

The Grand' Rue, the main street of the Old Town, in Geneva.

Dylan Thomas in the Boathouse, his writing shed in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, Wales. He wrote many of his best-known pieces here, including 'Under Milk Wood.'

Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray in the 1944 film noir masterpiece 'Double Indemnity.' Edward G. Robinson was excellent as Keyes, the chief insurance investigator who clings tenaciously to the clues.

Fenêtre sur la maison Kammerzell, Strasbourg

El Mercado in San Antonio, Texas, next best thing to being in Mexico without actually being there. Mi Tierra is highly recommended, as I recall. Good margaritas. Good times.

Kirk Douglas as Vincent Van Gogh in 'Lust for Life,' 1956. Douglas was so brilliant in the role that Marc Chagall asked Douglas whether he would be willing to play him in a filmed version of his autobiography, Ma Vie. Douglas declined, after buying four Chagall paintings.

Charles Bukowski browsing his bookshelves.

'Novelists do not write as birds sing... It is part of the job that there should be much routine and some daily stuff on the level of carpentry.' William Golding's observations are worth noting, not just because he wrote 'Lord of the Flies' and won the Nobel.

Col. James Stewart at the controls, sometime in '42 or '43.

David Niven, with Gregory Peck and Stanley Baker looking on, taking a break from filming 'The Guns of Navarone' for a jaunt to Royal Ascot in 1961.

Spring in Switzerland as Bern blossoms.

Barton Creek in Austin, Texas, where I spent many a pleasant lunchtime interlude during my years of working in Austin.

Oliver Reed raising a glass. Not exactly an uncommon sight.

James Stewart in the throes of his obsession with Kim Novak in 'Vertigo,' 1958.