The Only Thing More Surprising Than the Chance She's Taking... Is Where It's Taking Her.
Frances MayesThe Italians have their priorities right: They're driven, they do their work, but they really enjoy the day-to-day and they don't put off the enjoyment of the everyday for some future goal.
Frances MayesAlthough I am a person who expected to be rooted in one spot forever, as it has turned out I love having the memories of living in many places.
Frances MayesI got the idea that to write books would be the best way to spend a life. I never thought of anything else that seemed like half as much fun, although in my next life I would like to be an architect, too, so I can have an easier time restoring houses.
Frances MayesAnytime the perfume of orange and lemon groves wafts in the window; the human body has to feel suffused with a languorous well-being.
Frances MayesEverything I pick up seems to lure me away. Everything I do in my daily life begins to feel like striking wet matches. The need to travel is a mysterious force. A desire to 'go' runs through me equally with an intense desire to 'stay' at home. An equal and opposite thermodynamic principle. When I travel, I think of home and what it means. At home I'm dreaming of catching trains at night in the gray light of Old Europe, or pushing open shutters to see Florence awaken. The balance just slightly tips in the direction of the airport.
Frances Mayes