There is no other place on earth even remotely like New Orleans. Don't even try to compare it to anywhere else.

Always entertain the possibility that something, no matter how squiggly and scary looking, might just be good.

Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life - and travel - leaves marks on you. Most of the time, those marks - on your body or on your heart - are beautiful. Often, though, they hurt.

I just do the best I can and write something interesting, to tell stories in an interesting way and move forward from there.

My daughter takes pride in showing up with stuff that other kids envy or are freaked out by, so I send her to school with grilled octopus.

If you go to working class, and working poor areas of America, the food sources that are relegated to them are generally limited to unhealthy ones.

Even on the Serengeti, it ain't a barbecue if there ain't some kind of beer.