The world starts to exist, for Americans, when we are in conflict with a place. And then all of a sudden, Afghanistan pops up on the TV screen and it becomes a place. And it exists for three weeks and then it disappears into thin air.

Nations should be governed by a council of learned men who must answer to the people for their actions.

When you make an omelet, as when you make love, affection counts for more than technique.

Real soup is to the body what peace is to the soul.

Cooking can be like foreplay.

Music is a wind that blows away the years, memories, and fear, that crouching animal I carry inside me.

I'm very optimistic because I think that the real strength of a nation like the United States comes from blending cultures. There's no way that you can close the frontiers anywhere. The borders are there to be violated permanently.