Until I discovered cooking, I was never really interested in anything.

I was never a spy. I was with the OSS organization. We had a number of women, but we were all office help.

Animals that we eat are raised for food in the most economical way possible, and the serious food producers do it in the most humane way possible. I think anyone who is a carnivore needs to understand that meat does not originally come in these neat little packages.

The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude.

There are reasons, and then there are excuses.

Drama is very important in life: You have to come on with a bang. You never want to go out with a whimper. Everything can have drama if it's done right. Even a pancake.

I had my first French meal and I never got over it. It was just marvelous. We had oysters and a lovely dry white wine. And then we had one of those lovely scalloped dishes and the lovely, creamery buttery sauce. Then we had a roast duck and I don't know what else.