I made the mistake of thinking that if you add up the past, you sum up the future; I forgot how frequently life astonishes us.

it's perfectly possible to hate one's fat and to love one's body at the same time.

Persecution always acts as a jell for members of cults; it proves to them, in the absence of history, liturgy, tradition, and doctrine, that they are God's chosen.

the gardens of our childhood are all beautiful.

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

I don't think I know a single woman who knows what she looks like.

All acts performed in the world begin in the imagination.