I like the fact that Melbourne always seems to support their chefs and promote them in ways I find really admirable.

In this way, writers are indeed, as Henry Miller suggested, traitors to the human race. We may turn a light on inequity, injustice, and oppression from time to time, but we regularly kill what we love in insidious fashion.

I'm not trying to explain other cultures, or to give a fair and balanced account of a country, or the top ten things you need to know. I'm not trying to spread world peace and understanding. I'm not an advocate or an activist or an educator or a journalist. I'm out there trying to tell stories the best I can.

Understand, when you eat meat, that something did die. You have an obligation to value it - not just the sirloin but also all those wonderful tough little bits.

It's not normal, what I do. Just being on television isn't.

There's always this assumption that you're going to get everything right immediately. And any professional understands that that's just not so.

Naturally, I'm misanthropic. But the Negronis are helping considerably.