To offer the complexities of life as an excuse for not addressing oneself to the simpler, more manageable (trivial) aspects of daily existence is a perversity often indulged in by artists, husbands, intellectuals -- and critics of the Women's Movement.

Italians' relationship to food is loving, informal, and gay.

the gardens of our childhood are all beautiful.

In memory Venice is always magic.

The past is a sorry country.

Our awesome responsibility to ourselves, to our children, and to the future is to create ourselves in the image of goodness, because the future depends on the nobility of our imaginings.

Italians do not regard food as merely fuel. They regard it as medicine for the soul, one of life's abiding pleasures.