To be a good cook you have to have a love of the good, a love of hard work, and a love of creating.

The measure of achievement is not winning awards. It's doing something that you appreciate, something you believe is worthwhile.

There is nothing worse than grilled vegetables.

You learn to cook so that you don't have to be a slave to recipes. You get what's in season and you know what to do with it.

The sweetness and generosity and politeness and gentleness and humanity of the French had shown me how lovely life can be if one takes time to be friendly.

I don't believe in twisting yourself into knots of excuses and explanations over the food you make.... Usually one's cooking is better than one thinks it is. And if the food is truly vile...then the cook must simply grit her teeth and bear it with a smile.

I admired the English immensely for all that they had endured, and they were certainly honorable, and stopped their cars for pedestrians, and called you “sir” and “madam,” and so on. But after a week there, I began to feel wild. It was those ruddy English faces, so held in by duty, the sense of “what is done” and “what is not done,” and always swigging tea and chirping, that made me want to scream like a hyena